Davis v. United States

• Decision Date: 22 April 1926
• Docket Number: No. 4681,4697.,4681
• Citation: 12 F.2d 253
• Parties: DAVIS v. UNITED STATES. LAND v. SAME.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

12 F.2d 253 (1926)

DAVIS v. UNITED STATES.

LAND v. SAME.

Nos. 4681, 4697.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

March 31, 1926.

Rehearing Denied April 22, 1926.

Philip D. Beall and John M. Coe, both of Pensacola, Fla., and Ira A. Hutchison, of Panama City, Fla, for plaintiff in error Davis.

Wm. Fisher of Pensacola, Fla., and Paul Carter, of Marianna, Fla., for plaintiff in error Land.

Fred Cubberly, U. S. Atty., and George Earl Hoffman, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Pensacola, Fla.

Before WALKER, BRYAN, and FOSTER, Circuit Judges.

BRYAN, Circuit Judge.

These are prosecutions for holding, arresting, and returning four men to a condition of peonage, in violation of section 269 of the Criminal Code (Comp. St. § 10442). Originally there were four indictments, numbered 2068, 2069, 2070, and 2071. Indictment 2068 consists of a single count, and charges M. D. Davis with holding Henry Sanders to a condition of peonage. Indictment 2069, in separate counts, charges Davis with holding George Diamond, Galvester Jackson, and De Witt, Stonan, respectively, to a condition of peonage. Indictment 2070 consists of eight counts, and charges Davis, Charles Land, Carey Whitfield, Frank Daniels, and Will Proctor, all as principals, in the first four counts with arresting, and in the last four counts with returning, Sanders, Diamond, Jackson, and Stonan to a condition of peonage. Indictment 2071 also contains eight counts, and charges Davis, as principal, in the first four counts with arresting, and in the last four counts with returning, separately and severally, Sanders, Jackson, Diamond, and Stonan, respectively, to a condition of peonage, in order to compel them to work for Davis in payment of debts which they owed him. In the last-named indictment, Land, Whitfield, Daniels, and Proctor are charged in each count with aiding and abetting Davis. The holdings to a condition of peonage were alleged to have occurred on September 29, 1924, and the arrests and returns thereto on September 30, 1924.

The four indictments were consolidated for trial over the objection and exception of all the defendants, but during the trial the government was required to elect between indictments 2070 and 2071, and this requirement resulted in the withdrawal of indictment 2070 from the consideration of the jury. Davis was convicted on all counts of the three indictments submitted to the jury, and sentenced to serve 13 months in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of $500. Land was convicted on the first four counts of indictment 2071, which separately charges the arrest to a condition of peonage of Sanders, Diamond, Jackson, and Stonan, and sentenced to serve a year and a day in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of $500. The other defendants were convicted on several counts of indictment 2071, but it is unnecessary to consider their cases as they have not sued out writs of error. Davis and Land have sued out separate writs of error, which may be disposed of in one opinion.

There was evidence for the government to the following effect: In the year 1924 the defendant Davis operated two turpentine farms, one called Camp Sanders, and the other Farmdale, located, respectively, 10 miles west and 25 miles southwest of Wewahitchka, a town in Calhoun county, Fla. Whitfield, Daniels, and Proctor, defendants in the court below, were employees of Davis at his Farmdale place. Defendant Land was not connected in business with Davis, but had a turpentine place of his own near Wewahitchka.

The so-called peons, Diamond and Jackson, went to work for Davis at Camp Sanders in June, 1924. About two weeks after their employment began, they obtained permission to go to River Junction, which is some distance north of Wewahitchka, for the purpose of moving Diamond's family to Camp Sanders. Diamond and Jackson, not having returned, were arrested on August 8 at River Junction, at the instigation of Davis, and taken to Blountstown, the county seat of Calhoun county, on a charge of larceny of property of the value of $8.50 belonging to Davis. When they were brought before the county judge to plead to the charge against them, Davis was present and made the statement, with the apparent approval of the county judge, that if they did not plead guilty they would be imprisoned for a period of eight months, whereupon they both pleaded guilty. At the same time Henry Sanders, another alleged peon, was before the county judge on a charge of larceny from Land's brother of property of the value of $2.75, and he also pleaded guilty. The county judge ordered the three prisoners released on payment of costs.

Davis paid the costs, which amounted to $37.28 against Diamond and Jackson, and $25 against Sanders, and in addition assumed responsibility to Land's brother for a debt of $100, which the latter claimed against Sanders, and took Diamond, Jackson, and Sanders, to his turpentine place at Farmdale, and held them there upon their agreements to work out the debts thus incurred, as well as other claims of indebtedness which he held against Diamond and Jackson. Do Witt Stonan was also being held at Farmdale for a debt, but so far as appears had not been charged with crime. The four peons were kept under surveillance, and remained against their will, because of their fear of physical punishment and criminal prosecution, until the night of September 29, 1924, when they, accompanied by the wife of Sanders and the wife of Stonan, secretly left Farmdale with the intention of making their escape. On the next morning, September 30, 1924, they arrived at the home of one May Bell McGee, near Wewahitchka, where the women were left. The four men went around the town and hid in the woods adjacent to what is called the West Arm highway bridge, which it appears was the only practical means of proceeding northward toward Blountstown, with the intention of crossing the bridge at night, when the chances of apprehension would be less than in the daytime. This bridge is about a mile north of Wewahitchka.

Early on the morning of September 30, Davis and his employees, Whitfield, Daniels, and Proctor, appeared in Wewahitchka in search of the escaped laborers. Davis and one other man proceeded across the West Arm bridge to the home of Matthew Brown, the father of Sanders' wife. Upon being assured that Sanders was not at Brown's house, he proceeded on up the road in the direction of Blountstown. Brown then went in his automobile to search for his daughter, and found her and Stonan's wife at the McGee woman's home. He took them in his car, with the intention of taking them to his home. Davis and his employees overtook them, and took the women out of Brown's car, put them in Davis' car, and carried them back to Wewahitchka, where Proctor took charge of them and kept them under guard. Later in the day, after a consultation between Davis, Land, Whitfield, and Daniels, Davis and Land drove off in Land's automobile. After dark, Sanders, Diamond, Jackson, and Stonan were apprehended by Whitfield and Daniels at the north end of the bridge. Within a short time, variously estimated at from 15 to 30 minutes, Davis and Land arrived on the scene in Land's automobile. The four defendants, each of whom was armed, placed the recaptured men in Land's automobile, and, after making Stonan whip the others, returned with them to Wewahitchka. There Diamond was turned over to Land, and Sanders, Jackson, Stonan, and the two women, who had been left in Proctor's charge, were taken by the other defendants back to Farmdale.

Within a few days H. H. Bowles, a deputy marshal, went to Farmdale to summon Henry Sanders and others as witnesses. He...