Davis v. United States
| Decision Date | 06 September 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 17037.,17037. |
| Citation | 306 F.2d 317 |
| Parties | Henry DAVIS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Henry Davis, pro se.
D. Jeff Lance, U. S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., filed motion to dismiss.
Before JOHNSEN, Chief Judge, and MATTHES, Circuit Judge.
The United States has filed a motion to dismiss as frivolous the appeal taken by appellant from the denial of his motion under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255, for vacation of the sentences imposed upon him on his pleas of guilty to all the counts of an indictment.
The counts of the indictment were eight in number, seven of them charging sales of heroin in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4705(a), and the eighth charging conspiracy with a third party to violate said section by engaging in selling heroin contrary to its provisions. Appellant was given a sentence of 5 years imprisonment on each count, with the sentences on counts 1, 2, and 3 to run consecutively to each other, and with the sentences on the rest of the counts to run concurrently with those on the first three counts. The term of appellant's imprisonment thus amounted to a total of 15 years.
The first basis of appellant's motion to vacate was a contention that all the counts in the indictment were fatally defective in that they failed to charge that, in making the sales or in conspiring to effect them, appellant had knowingly and wilfully undertaken to violate the statute. We long ago held, however, under the Harrison Narcotics Act, that criminal intent is not an element of the offense of selling narcotic drugs in violation of the statute. Daugherty v. United States, 8 Cir., 2 F.2d 691, reversed on other grounds, 269 U.S. 360, 46 S.Ct. 156, 70 L.Ed. 309. The motive with which one may have engaged in such forbidden selling, or in conspiring to effect such forbidden sales as have been completed, is wholly immaterial. Guilbeau v. United States, 5 Cir., 288 F. 731, 733.
The provision of the Harrison Narcotics Act, 38 Stat. 786, that "it shall be unlawful for any person to sell, barter, exchange, or give away any of the aforesaid narcotics drugs except in pursuance of a written order of the person to whom such article is sold, bartered, or exchanged, or given, on a form to be issued in blank for that purpose by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue", was without material change made a part of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, § 2554(a), 26 U.S.C.A. § 2554(a) and of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, § 4705 (a), 26 U.S.C.A. This prohibition has judicially been regarded, through the years, in the numerous prosecutions which have been made under it, as involving no question of intent. Neither the language of the statute nor any existing decision affords...
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United States v. Crawford
...of § 4705(a). * * * The motive with which one may have engaged in such forbidden selling * * * is wholly immaterial." Davis v. United States, 306 F.2d 317 (8th Cir. 1962), cert. denied, 372 U.S. 920, 83 S.Ct. 734, 9 L.Ed.2d 725 (1963); Daugherty v. United States, 2 F.2d 691 (8th Cir. 1925),......
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United States v. Jones, 17706.
...by 26 U.S.C.A. § 4705(a) and charged in Count VII. United States v. Balint, 258 U.S. 250, 42 S.Ct. 301, 66 L. Ed. 604;4 Davis v. United States, 8 Cir., 306 F.2d 317, 318, and Aggers v. United States, supra. And, this Court in United States v. Fierson, 7 Cir., 419 F.2d 1020, 1022, held "Prio......
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United States v. Lawrance, 72-1607.
...Court specifically approved the Balint and Behrman conclusion. United States v. Jones, 438 F.2d 461 (CA 7, 1971); Davis v. United States, 306 F.2d 317 (CA 8, 1962). Although the constitutionality of § 4704(a) has been questioned, Casey v. United States, 276 U.S. 413, 48 S.Ct. 373, 72 L.Ed. ......
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United States v. Pittman, 29868 Summary Calendar.
...suggests that neither knowledge nor intent on the part of the accused constitutes an element of either offense. See Davis v. United States, 8 Cir., 1962, 306 F.2d 317, cert. denied, 372 U.S. 920, 83 S.Ct. 734, 9 L.Ed.2d 725 (1963); Guilbeau v. United States, 5 Cir., 1923, 288 F. 731, 732-73......