Court Opinion

ID: 9443305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:17:14.059008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:26.731665
License: Public Domain

POPE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Upon consideration of the petition for a rehearing, and further consideration of the record, I am convinced that a rehearing should be granted. The evidence was equivocal, and the circumstances relied upon by the trial court in finding guilt, were, it now seems to me, equally consistent with innocence. I think, therefore, that there is grave question of the sufficiency of the evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
It also seems to me that we did not pay sufficient attention to the evidence of substantial variation of prices during the period following the abrogation of the price-fixing provisions of the licenses and prior to the imposition of Government controls. I, for one, was too much impressed with the fact of identity of appearance of the products of the several manufacturers. As suggested in the petition for rehearing, no one has ever proposed that an inference of unlawful price-fixing arises from the identity of shovels, hoes, rakes or paint brushes. Because the opinion plows much new ground, I would invite a reargument. .