Court Opinion

ID: 9639870
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:50:30.942153+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:22.660116
License: Public Domain

JONES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I think that the decision in Pettibone v. United States, 148 U.S. 197, 13 S.Ct. 542, 37 L.Ed. 419, plainly rules the question fundamentally here involved.
There appears to be no logical escape from the conclusion that refusal to apply to the facts of this case the rule of the Pettibone case works approbation of a conviction obtained upon a federal indictment which utterly failed to charge the defendants with an offense against the laws of the United States. If that be so, then obviously the disposition which this court now makes of the instant appeal far transcends in its effect generally the importance of the case to the parties immediately concerned.
The indictment, which was returned on April 16, 1940, alleged in count 1 that the appellants and two other defendants “from on or about the 15th day of October, 1937, and continuously thereafter up to and including the date of the filing” of the indictment “did * * * knowingly * * * conspire * * * and agree together * * * to influence, intimidate and impede witnesses in the District Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey, and the Grand Jury thereof, and corruptly * * * to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice therein, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241 [Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code],” by and in the means and manner as alleged in the indictment.1
According to the allegations of the indictment, an investigation was begun on November 1, 1939, by Special Investigators of the Federal Alcohol Tax Unit with a view to discovering violations of the laws of the United States in the District of New Jersey by ascertaining the identity of the owners and possessors of a certain unregistered still and a quantity of finished untaxed alcohol which had been seized in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by State enforcement officers on October 13, 1937. The investigation resulted in the filing of a complaint before a United States Commissioner on January 17, 1940, and a second complaint before another Commissioner on February 14, 1940, and an inquest by the Grand Jury for the District of New Jersey for the December Term 1939 as extended by order of court entered “on the 11th day of January, 1940.” The indictment further alleged that the appellants and the two other defendants, in fulfillment of the conspiracy, corruptly influenced, intimidated and impeded three named witnesses who they knew were about to be called before the Commissioners and the Grand Jury in connection with the investigation and that, thereby, they obstructed the due administration of justice in the District Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey.
It therefore clearly appears that the indictment charged the defendants with a conspiracy “on or about the 15th day of October, 1937” (contrary to Sec. 37 of the Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C.A. § 88) to intimidate and impede witnesses and to obstruct the due administration of justice ira a court of the United States or before a United States Commissioner (in violation *800of Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code) notwithstanding that no such proceedings were instituted for more than two years after the formation of the alleged conspiracy.
The indictment then specified seven overt acts, the first of which was alleged to have been committed on October 15, 1937, and the second on February 9, 1939, — both well prior to the institution of the proceedings before the Commissioners and the Grand Jury, or even before the commencement of the investigation by the Special Investigators of the Alcohol Tax Unit. Thus, according to the indictment, the alleged conspiracy, by virtue of the statute’s prescription with respect to the commission of an overt act (Sec. 37 of the Criminal Code), became an indictable and punishable offense more than two years before there was any proceeding in a United States court or before a Commissioner in respect whereof the appellants could either have intimidated witnesses or obstructed justice as alleged in the indictment.
The government’s proofs at trial conformed with the allegations of the indictment as to the formation of the conspiracy on October 15, 1937, the commission of an overt act on the same day, as well as the commission of a similar act on February 9, 1939, and the commencement of the proceedings before the Commissioners and the Grand Jury for the District of New Jersey in January of 1940. In their brief on this appeal, counsel for the government speaking with relation to the proofs at trial affirm that “It was established that the conspiracy to endeavor to influence witnesses and obstruct the due administration of justice began on October 13, 1937, immediately after the still was raided.”
In short, the appellants were charged and found guilty of having conspired to commit a specific offense against the United States at a time when, under the allegations of the indictment, as well as under the proofs at trial, no such offense was com-mittable.
The defectiveness of the indictment and the infirmity of the proofs at trial in the particulars indicated were raised in the court below by the defendants’ motions to quash and in arrest of judgment. Both of these motions were overruled. The action of the learned trial court in such regard was assigned here for error on the pending appeal. However, this court now overrules the assignments and affirms the judgment. To do so, the majority necessarily hold that the pendency of a proceeding in a court of the United States or before a Commissioner is not a prerequisite to an indictment for conspiring to intimidate witnesses and to obstruct justice “therein” in violation of Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code. That conclusion seems to me to be directly in the teeth of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Pettibone case.
The report of the Pettibone case shows that an injunction had issued out of a United States court in an equity suit involving a labor dispute; that certain of the respondents against whom the injunction was directed violated its restraints; and that thereupon they were indicted for conspiring (contrary to R.S. § 5440, now Sec. 37 of the Criminal Code) to obstruct justice in a proceeding (the injunction suit) in a court of the United States in violation of R.S. § 5399, now Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code. The indictment in the Pettibone case failed to allege that the defendants knew or had notice of the existence of the injunction, i.e., that justice was being administered in a court of the United States. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of guilt and remanded the case to the District Court with directions to quash the indictment and discharge the defendants. In so doing, the Court held at page 206 of 148 U.S., at page 546 of 13 S.Ct., 37 L.Ed. 419, that “a person is not sufficiently charged with obstructing or impeding the due administration of justice in a court unless it appears that he knew or had notice that justice was being administered in such court.” And further, at page 207 of 148 U.S., at page 546 of 13 S.Ct, 37 L.Ed. 419, the Supreme Court said that “such obstruction can only arise when justice is being administered. Unless that fact exists the statutory offense cannot be committed, * * (Emphasis supplied.)
The crime dealt with in the Pettibone case was precisely the same character of crime charged against the defendants in the instant case. But, as we have already seen, there was a proceeding actually pending in a court of the United States at the time of the alleged conspiracy in the Pet-tibone case, while here there was none, nor was there any for more than two years after the conspiracy allegedly had been matured into an indictable offense by the *801commission of an overt act. A fortiori, the rule in the Pettibone case should be applicable here.
No distinction between the Pettibone and the instant case is logically admissible on the basis asserted that “in the Pettibone case the Supreme Court was passing upon a violation of the injunctive process of the district court”. That case was not concerned with “a violation of the injunc-tive process” of any court. What the Petti-bone case dealt with was an alleged conspiracy to obstruct the due administration of justice in a court of the United States and the allegata and probata required to support the charge. Nor can it be of any materiality to the Pettibone decision that the'justice in that case, at whose obstruction the alleged conspiracy was aimed, was being administered in a civil rather than in a criminal proceeding. The thing which the statute (Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code) makes criminal, in presently relevant regard, is the intimidation of witnesses or the obstruction of justice in a court of the United States, regardless of whether the justice there being administered is at law, either civil or criminal, in equity, in admiralty, or in bankruptcy. As no valid reason is advanced why “the Pettibone case does not support the appellants’ position,” I think it continues to rule where, as here, Secs. 37 and 135 of the Criminal Code are involved. And so it has been recognized elsewhere.
In Odom v. United States, 5 Cir., 116 F.2d 996, the defendants had set upon and beaten one Stansbury, who had been a witness in a federal court and expected to testify thereafter in the same cause. The Court of Appeals, after pointing out at page 998 of 116 F.2d that “The two sections of the criminal statutes here involved were expounded in Pettibone v. United States, 148 U.S. 197, 13 S.Ct. 542, 37 L.Ed. 419,” said that “It is necessary to federal jurisdiction in this case to prove that there was a proceeding in the courts of the United States, and that Stansbury was a witness therein, and that the accused had knowledge of both facts, * * True enough, the conviction in the Odom case was sustained, but that was because there was proof from which the jury could find the requisite scienter. The rule there applied respected, none the less, the requirements of the Pettibone decision under which it must be taken as settled that knowledge or notice of the pendency of a proceeding in a court- of the United States or before a Commissioner is necessary for a violation of Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code and, by the same token, is a requisite averment of an indictment for conspiracy to violate Sec. 135.
The need for averment and proof of scienter in order to sustain an indictment and conviction for the substantive offense under Sec. 135 has been recognized generally2 and will hardly be disputed. Manifestly, without knowledge or notice of the pendency of a proceeding in a court of the United States, there can be no intent to obstruct the due administration of justice “therein”. Yet “the specific intent to violate the statute must exist to justify a conviction * * That was said in the Pettibone case at page 207 of 148 U.S., at page 547 of 13 S.Ct., 37 L.Ed. 419, where, it will be remembered, the question present related to a conspiracy to violate Sec. 135. How, then, can scienter be alleged or proven when the thing whereof one need have knowledge or notice does not exist? Such is this very case. Under the circumstances obtaining, the failure of the indictment to allege the defendants’ knowledge or notice of the requisite proceeding is readily understandable. In fact, the omission thereof in this case was made even more “advisedly” than it was in the Pettibone case where there was a proceeding actually pending. In any event, the failure to allege scienter in the Pettibone case was fatal to the indictment in that case. It can be no less fatal here where there was no proceeding about which to conspire.
However, it" is argued^ that, assuming a conviction for the substantive offense under Sec. 135 could not be sustained on the facts alleged in the indictment in this case, still, by some legal alchemy, when Sec. 135 is applied in combination with the conspir*802acy statute,- there emerges an otherwise undeclared federal offense, namely, a conspiracy to obstruct justice without regard for any proceeding in a court of the United States or before a United States Commissioner. How can that be ? Certain it is that the conspiracy statute, when applied in conjunction with Sec. 135, does not operate to withdraw the necessity for averment and proof of any of the elements requisite to a charge of the substantive offense. Cf. Ge-bardi v. United States, 287 U.S. 112, 123, 53 S.Ct. 35, 77 L.Ed. 206, 84 A.L.R. 370. It is not a crime under the terms of Sec. 37 to conspire to commit that which a federal statute does not denounce as an offense against the United States. In United States v. Biggs, 211 U.S. 507, 521, 29 S.Ct. 181, 185; 53 L.Ed. 305, the Supreme Court rejected the contention that “it is unlawful under the [conspiracy] statute to conspire to have that done which the [substantive] statute did not prohibit * * In Fulbright v. United States, 8 Cir., 91 F.2d 210, 212, the court said that “If the act is not prohibited by Congress, it is not unlawful to conspire to do it.” And, in Fain v. United States, 8 Cir., 209 F. 525, 531, it was said that “It is neither criminal nor unlawful to do or conspire to do that which the law does not prohibit * * Consequently, it is not possible under the federal statute (Sec. 37) unlawfully to conspire to commit an offense which, under the facts averred and proven, could not be committed under the requirements of the statute defining the substantive offense.
The question here involved is not to be solved by confusing the federal crime of conspiracy to obstruct justice in a court of the United States with the crime of perverting or obstructing justice without regard for the particular place where justice is being administered, which is an offense in some jurisdictions either at common law or by local statute. Such are the cases of Rex v. Sharpe and Rex v. Stringer, 26 Cr.App.Rep. 122, 1 All.E.R. 48, and the New York County General Sessions case of People v. McCue, 139 Misc. 790, 250 N.Y.S. 161, which the majority cite and quote from in extenso. Those cases can have no bearing upon the meaning and effect of a federal statute. They do not even furnish comparable basis for an argument by analogy. To say, as do the majority, that “The end in view [of the conspiracy at bar] was the obstruction of justice, both state and federal” is not germane to the problem before this court and only further illustrates the failure to dis-' criminate between the relevant federal crime (conspiracy to obstruct justice in a court) and the unrelated crime in other jurisdictions of conspiring to obstruct justice.
There is no federal statute or statutes which denounce simply the obstruction of justice. And, of course, what a federal statute does not make criminal is not an offense against the United States. As is well recognized, there are no common law offenses against the United States. United States v. Eaton, 144 U.S. 677, 687, 12 S.Ct. 764, 36 L.Ed. 591. In no event could the legislative history to which the majority make reference in a footnote, even if pertinent, be deemed to invite extension of the congressional intent beyond the plain words of the statute and, certainly, not so as to embrace, thus facilely, common law crimes within federal offenses.
A necessary corollary of this court’s ruling in the instant case is that an indictment and conviction for a conspiracy to intimidate witnesses or to obstruct justice in a court or before a commissioner may be sustained even though such a proceeding in material respect is never instituted.' Government counsel freely conceded both by brief and at bar that such is indeed the government’s contention. This concession is but the necessary concomitant of a rule which would confirm guilt of conspiracy to obstruct the due administration of justice in a court of the United States before any relevant proceeding is instituted therein. Yet, the conspiracy made punishable by Sec. 37 of the Criminal Code occurs when the minds of the parties thereto meet in agreement for the attainment of the illegal object by concert of action. The crime does not lie in the recurrent acts subsequently performed by one or more of the conspirators in furtherance of the object of the conspiracy. Proof of an overt act is necessary because of the statute’s specific requirement thereof as a prerequisite to an indictment and conviction for the conspiracy. Hyde v. United States, 225 U.S. 347, 359, 32 S.Ct. 793, 56 L.Ed. 1114, Ann.Cas.1914A, 614. The overt act marks the passing of the locus penitentiae. United States v. Britton, 108 U.S. 199, 205, 2 S.Ct. 531, 27 L.Ed. 698. And, immediately consequent upon the first overt act, the conspiracy passes from words or understanding to criminally *803culpable conduct. The illegal combination or concert being the offense of conspiracy, the Supreme Court said in the Britton case, supra, at page 205 of 108 U.S., -at page 534 of 2 S.Ct., that it is “a rule of criminal pleading that in an indictment for conspiracy under section 5440 [now Sec. 37, Criminal Code], the conspiracy must be sufficiently charged, and that it cannot be aided by the averments of acts done by one or more of the conspirators in furtherance of the object of the conspiracy.”
In the instant case the indictment alleges that the conspiracy was entered into “on or about the 15th day of October 1937” and further that on the same day (specifically October 15, 1937) an overt act was committed in furtherance of the object of the conspiracy by one or more of the defendants. From this, it necessarily follows that the defendants were as indictable for the alleged conspiracy on October 15, 1937, as they ever were at any time thereafter; and that conspiracy is the one and only offense charged by the indictment. It is apparent, therefore, that if the indictment in this case be held valid, the defendants could have been indicted, tried, convicted and have served a sentence for the conspiracy prior to the institution of the proceedings before the Commissioners or in the United States Court in January of 1940. Obviously in such circumstances the ultimate proceeding was wholly immaterial to the indictment and conviction. In order to arrive at a rule which produces the situation just indicated it is necessary to disregard the plain words of the statute and the meaning heretofore attached to them by the Supreme Court.
The thing at which the statute (Sec. 135) is directed is the intimidation of witnesses “in any court of the United States or before any United States commissioner” or the obstruction of “the due administration of justice therein * * (Emphasis supplied.) Wherein? Necessarily, “in any court of the United States or before any United States commissioner”. Such has been the considered interpretation of the word “therein”, as used in the statute, with respect to its plainly intended reference. See United States v. McLeod, C.C.N.D. Ala., 119 F. 416, at page 419, where the court said that “This statute ■ does not create the offense of obstructing justice in general or in the abstract.” That is a clear recognition of the effect of the crucial limitation prescribed' by the words of the statute. In the McLeod case, the court further said at page 417 of 119 F. that “But for the restraining influence of the word ‘therein,’ the words ‘due administration of justice’ might perhaps be held to include practices subversive of the general administration of justice, regardless of their effect upon any particular case.” While the majority of this court cite and apparently accept the view expressed in the McLeod case, supra, they then go on to say that “If we were construing this statute as a matter of original impression we would have held this phrase [“due administration of justice therein”] to be one of enlargement and not of limitation * * For what reason? The word “therein” prescribes a qualification which may not be ignored. Moreover, the statute is penal and, therefore, not to be enlarged by any supposed intendment. Cf. Todd v. United States, 158 U.S. 278, 282, 15 S.Ct. 889, 39 L.Ed. 982.
If a pending proceeding in a court of the United States or before a United States Commissioner were not necessary to a charge of intimidating witnesses or of obstructing the due administration of justice therein, then the further ruling in the Todd case, supra, would be wanting in justification. In that case, the Supreme Court reversed the District Court’s order, overruling a demurrer to the indictment, because the indictment alleged a conspiracy to intimidate witnesses in a proceeding before a United States Commissioner when at that time (1895) the then relevant statute (R.S. § 5406) embraced no more than a conspiracy to intimidate witnesses “in any court of the United States” without mention of United States Commissioners. As a consequence, the Supreme Court there held at page 284 of 158 U.S., at page 891 of 15 S.Ct. that “* * * As a preliminary examination before a commissioner cannot be considered a case pending in any court of the United States, it follows that this indictment is fatally defective, and charges no offense against the laws of the United States/’ (Emphasis supplied.) Patently, if a pending proceeding had nott been considered necessary to an indictment under R.S. § 5406 for conspiracy to intimidate witnesses, it would have been wholly immaterial in the Todd case where the proceeding, if any, obtained. R.S. § 5406 was thereafter amended by Act of March 4, 1909, c. 321, § 136, 35 Stat. 1113, *80418 U.S.C.A. § 242, so as to embrace a conspiracy to intimidate witnesses “in any examination before a United States commissioner” and, as so amended, became Sec. 136 of the Criminal Code. The history of Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code, with which we are here concerned, is identical, in such regard, with the history of Sec. 136. So that what the Supreme Court held with respect to R.S. § 5406 in the Todd case is equally pertinent to R.S. § 5399, the predecessor of Sec. 135.
The ultimate filing of the complaints before the Commissioners in January and February of 1940 and the institution of the Grand Jury investigation about the same time can hardly supply the proceeding contemplated by the statute in respect whereof the alleged conspiracy could have been formed in October of 1937. If such were the case, then there would be as many separate conspiracies developed out of the one combination or agreement for concerted action as there were related proceedings thereafter instituted. In this case, that would mean three crimes of conspiracy, although the indictment charges only one. If a subsequently instituted proceeding matures into criminality the priorly formed conspiracy, then, under the majority’s reasoning, the alleged conspiracy in this case became a crime when the first complaint was filed before the first Commissioner on January 17, 1940, a second crime when the second complaint was filed before the other Commissioner on February 14, 1940, and another crime when the Grand Jury proceeding was instituted about the same time. There is no reason why the proceeding first begun should exhaust the function of the succeeding proceedings so far as supporting a charge of obstructing justice is concerned. Furthermore, it is unusual, to say the least, for the commission of crime to be made to depend upon a condition subsequent. whose existence can alone result from the independent action of others (federal officers) who manifestly are unconnected with the conspiracy but have it within their power to determine whether or not to start the efficient proceeding.
Nor does the conspiracy become criminal, after a proceeding is instituted, on the ground that it is a continuing thing. Most conspiracies are continuous in the sense that they ordinarily endure for a period of time for the achievement of their intended end. But, where a conspiracy has been held to be continuous, it will be found to have been a conspiracy for the commission of an offense committable from the outset and, so, capable of continuing for successive achievements of the same purpose, such as combinations in restraint of trade. See United States v. Kissel, 218 U.S. 601, 607, 31 S.Ct. 124, 54 L.Ed. 1168. It is also believed that no case can be found where the alleged conspiracy entered into when its offensive object was legally un-committable has been held to continue until the offense could be committed and thereupon rendered criminal thereby.
Counsel for the government argue that a conspiracy to violate a statute entered into prior to its enactment becomes an indictable conspiracy after the passage of the statute, citing in this connection the cases of Bryant v. United States, 5 Cir., 257 F. 378, 386, and United States v. Wells, D.C.W.D.Wash., 262 F. 833, 836. Neither of those cases supports the rule for which the appellee contends. Specifically, the question was intentionally not passed upon in the Bryant case. See page 386 of 257 F. The conspiracy charge under consideration in that case was for the accomplishment of an offense committable at the time of the formation of the conspiracy, under Sec. 6 of the Criminal Code. 18 U.S.C.A. § 6, regardless of when, if ever, the particular statute (Selective Service Act of 1917, 50 U.S.C.A. appendix § 201 et seq.) was passed. In the Wells case one count in the indictment did allege a conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act of 1917 entered into before the enactment of the statute. But, as the Court itself makes plain (262 F. page 836), it was a further allegation in that same count charging an offense within Sec. 6 of the Criminal Code which saved that count In fact, in the Wells case the court expressly approved at page 836 of 262 F., as being “reasonable and logical” the defendant’s contention “that it is impossible to conspire to violate a law prior to its passage, and that the doing of an overt act after the passage of the law would not carry with it the conspiracy entered into prior to the passage of the act.”
The case of Williamson v. United States, 207 U.S. 425, 447, 28 S.Ct. 163, 52 L.Ed. 278, furnishes no basis for an argument that an indictment will lie for conspiring to commit an uncommittable offense against the United States. In the Williamson case the defendants were charged *805with conspiring to suborn perjury in violation of R.S. § 5393 (now Sec. 126 of the Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C.A. § 232). Subornation of perjury is thus itself an offense against the United States. And a conspiracy to suborn perjury is likewise a crime because it is a conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States. § 37. The crime of conspiring to suborn is unaffected by the fact that to commit the substantive offense of suborning perjury it must be shown that perjury was committed as a consequence of the subornation. That requirement goes only to the degree of proof necessary to convict for the substantive offense. The offense is none the less a committable one at the time the conspiracy is formed in that witnesses are in esse upon whom an effort can be made to induce them to testify falsely. In no case does the crime of conspiracy depend upon the degree of success achieved in the furtherance of its object. For instance, under Sec. 135, here involved, a conviction for conspiring to intimidate witnesses in a court of the United States might well be sustained although the conspirators could not be convicted of the substantive offense if they never intimidated nor actually endeavored to do so. Failure to establish the substantive offense because of lack of effort on the part of the conspirators is an entirely different matter than inability to prove the substantive offense because there was no proceeding pending in respect whereof witnesses might be intimidated and justice might be obstructed.
When this case was here on appeal from a former conviction (120 F.2d 276), the appellants cited the rule in the Pettibone case in support of their contention that certain evidence received at trial was inadmissible. As the evidence complained of was not only competent but both relevant and material to the indictment as drawn, the contention was rejected. In passing, it may be noted that the rule in the Pettibone case is not a rule of evidence but a rule as to the elements necessary to establish the substantive offense denounced by Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code or a conspiracy to violate that provision. However, certain statements were made in this court’s former opinion relative to the bearing of the rule in the Pettibone case on the question of the admissibility of the evidence then under consideration which counsel for the appellee now contend determined the question of the indictment’s validity. Such is not the case. The question of the insufficiency of the indictment for failure to allege a conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States was not before us on the former appeal and was never raised until the filing of the motion to quash the indictment at the outset of the second trial. The question was therefore an open one with this court until the current decision.
The motion to quash was none the less sufficiently timely. The question of the insufficiency of the indictment in the particular now under consideration was raised in the court below, was fully argued by counsel and was considered and passed upon by the learned trial judge on its merits. The question could even have been raised in this court for the first time. Rosen v. United States, 161 U.S. 29, 33, 16 S.Ct. 434, 40 L.Ed. 606; Sonnenberg v. United States, 9 Cir., 264 F. 327, 328. See Zoline, Federal Criminal Law and Procedure (1921) § 216. Moreover, the motion in arrest of judgment after verdict at the second trial brought the question squarely upon the record.
I regret that this dissent has extended to such length. But, the fundamental question involved is of such vital importance to the due administration of federal criminal justice as to justify full treatment of our differing views with respect thereto. If what the majority now hold be the law, then all that will be necessary to convict of conspiracy to intimidate witnesses and to obstruct justice under Sec. 135 of the Criminal Code will be a couple of locally unpopular defendants who happened to be seen talking together. The overt act necessary to mature the time for indictment and punishment may, as is well known, be a very incidental and inconsequential thing. The threat to individual liberty concealed in the proposition now approved by this court is not to be minimized and, particularly, not in times when popular passions may be more easily aroused. It invites the sort of possibility which courts should ever be alert to prevent.
For the reasons given, I should reverse the judgment and remand the case to the District Court with directions to quash the indictment and discharge the defendants.
Judge KIRKPATRICK joins in this dissent.

 The indictment now embraces only the one count. Originally, there was a second count which charged the defendants (appellants and two other persons) with a conspiracy to operate an unregistered still in violation of federal statutes. The second count dropped out of the case upon a former trial so far as the present appellants are concerned. At that time, the trial court directed the acquittal of the one appellant on the second count and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty as to the other appellant on the same count.

 Walker v. United States, 8 Cir., 93 F.2d 792, 795; Kloss v. United States, 8 Cir., 77 F.2d 462, 464; Genna v. United States, 7 Cir., 293 F. 387; United States v. McLeod, C.C.N.D.Ala., 119 F. 416, 418; United States v. Armstrong, D.C.S.D.Cal., 59 F. 568, 569; United States v. Kee, D.C.S.C., 39 F. 603, 604; United States v. Bittinger, D.C.W.D.Mo., 24 Fed.Cas. No.14,598; Zoline, Federal Criminal Law and Procedure (1921) § 796.