Court Opinion

ID: 9443800
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:31:00.534942+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:36.647698
License: Public Domain

L. HAND, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Rule 31(c) of the Criminal Rules, 18 U.S.C.A. provides that a “defendant may be found guilty * * * of an attempt to commit either the offense charged or an offense necessarily included therein if the attempt is an offense.” This is substantially the same as § 565, of Title 18, U.S.Code, which it superseded; and I shall assume that the meaning of the statute was unchanged. In United States v. Coplon, 2 Cir., 185 F.2d 629, 633, we considered how nearly the accused must go towards completing the crime, to be guilty of an attempt; and we adopted the statement of Holmes, J., in Commonwealth v. Peaslee, 177 Mass. 267, 277, 59 N.E. 55, 56: “If the preparation comes very near to the accomplishment of the act, the intent to complete it renders the crime so probable that the act will be a misdemeanor, although there is still » locus poenitentiae, in the need of a further exertion of the will to complete the crime.” In the case at bar the still had been once “set up,” but was found to be leaky, and the “column” was too high to permit the erection of the “dephlegmator.” One of the accused’s confederates was arrested while he was looking for advice from one, “Patsy,” as to how to deal with this difficulty. It seems to me that the setting up of the still was certainly “very near to accomplishment,” and there can be no doubt about the intent. It is true that this was a statutory crime and that the statute did not make it a crime to attempt to commit it. There are decisions holding that in such cases an attempt is not a crime; but none that I know of is authoritative on us, and it seems to me that there should be no exception in such cases, even though the crime be not malum in se. I think the judgment should be affirmed.