Dane v. United States

• Decision Date: 04 April 1927
• Docket Number: No. 4499.,4499.
• Parties: DANE v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

57 App. DC 161, 18 F.2d 811 (1927)

DANE v. UNITED STATES.

No. 4499.

Court of Appeals of District of Columbia.

Submitted February 7, 1927.

Decided April 4, 1927.

W. J. Lambert, R. H. Yeatman, A. F. Canfield, and May T. Bigelow, all of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Peyton Gordon, J. J. O'Leary, and J. W. Fihelly, all of Washington, D. C., for the United States.

Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, and ROBB and VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justices.

MARTIN, Chief Justice.

Appellant Dane and his codefendants Cody and Raymond were jointly indicted and tried on a charge of engaging in a pugilistic encounter in the District of Columbia. Cody and Raymond were acquitted. The appellant Dane was convicted and sentenced, from which he has appealed. He contends that the indictment failed to charge a crime; also that the indictment would not support a verdict of guilty as to him and not guilty as to his codefendants.

The following sections of the United States Criminal Code (35 Stat. 1150, 1152 Comp. St. §§ 10493, 10494, 10506) are applicable to the District of Columbia.

"Sec. 320. Whoever shall voluntarily engage in a pugilistic encounter between man and man * * * for money or for other thing of value, or for any championship, or upon the result of which any money or anything of value is bet or wagered, or to see which any admission fee is directly or indirectly charged, shall be imprisoned not more than five years.

"Sec. 321. By the term `pugilistic encounter,' as used in the section last preceding, is meant any voluntary fight by blows by means of fists or otherwise, whether with or without gloves, between two or more men, for money or for a prize of any character, or for any other thing of value, or for any championship, or upon the result of which any money or anything of value is bet or wagered, or to see which any admission fee is directly or indirectly charged."

"Sec. 332. Whoever directly commits any act constituting an offense defined in any law of the United States, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces, or procures its commission, is a principal."

The indictment in question was in three counts. Appellant was found guilty as to the first count, and not guilty as to the other two counts. The first count charged, with averments of time and place, that John Cody and Philip Raymond and Frank Dane "unlawfully, voluntarily, and feloniously did engage in a pugilistic encounter between man and man, to see which pugilistic encounter a certain admission fee was then and there charged; that is to say, that the said John Cody and the said Philip Raymond then and there unlawfully, voluntarily, and feloniously did engage in a voluntary fight by blows, by means of fists with gloves, between man and man, that is to say between the said John Cody and the said Philip Raymond, to see which said voluntary fight and pugilistic encounter a certain admission fee was then and there charged by the said Frank Dane, as the said John Cody and the said Philip Raymond then and there well knew. That the said John Cody and the said Philip Raymond and the said Frank Dane then and there unlawfully, voluntarily, and feloniously did engage in a pugilistic encounter between man and man, to see which said pugilistic encounter an admission fee was then and there charged, against the...