Andrews v. United States
Decision Date | 13 April 1896 |
Docket Number | No. 532,532 |
Citation | 162 U.S. 420,40 L.Ed. 1023,16 S.Ct. 798 |
Parties | ANDREWS v. UNITED STATES |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This case is here upon a writ of error sued out of the district court of the United States for the Southern district of California, wherein the plaintiff in error was indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced for violation of section 3893, Rev. St., as amended by Act. Cong. Sept. 26, 1888, c. 1039, § 2 (25 Stat. 496). The indictment contained two counts, each of which alleged that in the year 1893, at the city of Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, the plaintiff in error 'did knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully deposit, and cause to be deposited, in the United States post office, at the said city of Los Angeles, county and district aforesaid, for delivery, a certain obscene, lewd, and lascivious letter addressed to 'Mrs. Susan Budlong, box 661, Los Angeles, Cal."; and that the said letter was then and there unmailable matter, by reason of the indecent character of its contents. The two counts differed merely in that they described two different letters, alleged to have been dated, respectively, November 1 and November 3, 1893, and to have been respectively deposited in the said post office November 2 and November 3, 1893.
Section 3893 Rev. St., as amended by the act of September 26, 1888, is as follows:
The defendant demurred to the indictment on the ground that the facts stated therein did not constitute an offense against the laws of the United States. The demurrer was overruled, and the defendant then pleaded not guilty.
The evidence adduced at the trial tended to prove that one M. H. Flint, a United States post-office inspector, having seen in the Los Angeles Herald a certain advertis ment bearing the address, 'Spero, box 60, this office,' mailed to that address a letter referring to the subject of the advertisement, signed 'Susan H. Budlong, P. O. box 661, Los Angeles, Cal.,' and received in answer thereto, through the post office at Los Angeles, a letter signed 'Spero,' being the letter described in the first count of the indictment; that Flint then sent another letter, signed as above, and, having received an answer thereto signed 'Spero,' wrote a third time, and afterwards received out of the said post office a letter signed 'A. D. A., 313 N. Broadway,' being the letter described in the second count of the indictment. All the letters so received by Flint were inclosed in plain sealed envelopes, neither of which bore any writing save the address. Evidence was also introduced tending to connect the defendant with the mailing of the letters.
The said letters of Flint, and the testimony concerning the same, were introduced against the objections of the defendant, and to the introduction thereof he duly excepted.
At the conclusion of the evidence for the government, the defendant moved the court to instruct the jury to acquit him on the ground that, if any offense had been committed, it had been done at the request of Flint, a government...
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