McTyre v. United States, 14598.
| Decision Date | 20 May 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 14598.,14598. |
| Citation | 213 F.2d 65 |
| Parties | McTYRE v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Malcolm E. Lafargue, Shreveport, La., for appellant.
Wm. J. Fleniken, U. S. Atty., E. V. Boagni, Asst. U. S. Atty., T. Fitzhugh Wilson, U. S. Atty., Shreveport, La., for appellee.
Before BORAH, STRUM and RIVES, Circuit Judges.
The appellant was tried, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of eighteen months for violation of the Mann White Slave Traffic Act, 18 U.S. C.A. § 2421. The single count indictment charged simply:
"That on or about the 17th day of November, 1950, in the Shreveport Division, Western District of Louisiana, Davis Arvin McTyre did knowingly transport and cause to be transported a woman, namely, Willodene `Shirley\' Woodall, in interstate commerce from Birmingham in the State of Alabama to Bossier City in the State of Louisiana for the purpose of prostitution and debauchery."
On this appeal we need consider only those specifications of error which complain of the district court's failure to sustain the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of the Government's evidence and renewed at the close of all the evidence.
Interstate transportation of a female for immoral purposes is the gist or gravamen of the offense. Mortensen v. United States, 322 U.S. 369, 64 S.Ct. 1037, 88 L.Ed. 1331; Neff v. United States, 8 Cir., 105 F.2d 688, 691. The meaning of the word "transport" is too clear to permit of debate. By usage, as well as by derivation, it means to carry across. See 42 Words and Phrases, Transport, p. 512 et seq.; Dixie Oil Co. v. United States, 5 Cir., 24 F.2d 804, 805.
There was ample evidence that the woman was a prostitute, and that the defendant knew that at various times she had engaged in that nefarious trade in Birmingham, Alabama, and in New Orleans and Shreveport, Louisiana. The sum and substance of the evidence as to transportation was that the defendant and the victim were together in a bar in Birmingham, Alabama, on November 15, 1950, the victim dressed for traveling and carrying a small overnight bag, and three days later, on November 18, they were seen together in Bossier City, Louisiana, and that the victim continued the practice of her trade there. The learned district judge made the best case possible for the Government in overruling the motion for acquittal.1 We do not agree. The evidence must have been such as to justify the jury as reasonable men, in believing beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant transported the woman or caused her to be transported from Birmingham, Alabama, to Bossier City, Louisiana. Even if, as the district judge said, the inference could fairly be drawn that he "came with her over here", that would not be sufficient to show that he transported her or caused her to be transported. The Government concedes in brief:
"It is true that the Government offered no direct evidence or proof that the defendant accompanied the victim or any direct proof as to the type of vehicle used in making the trip or that the defendant bought the victim a ticket or paid her transportation from Birmingham, Alabama to Bossier City, Louisiana, which said proof the Government was not required to offer according to the District Court, and with which view we are entirely in accord."
As before stated, we do not agree with that view. It seems to us contrary to the well settled rule that to sustain the conviction the inferences reasonably to be drawn from the evidence must not only be consistent with his guilt but inconsistent with every reasonable hypothesis of his innocence. Kassin v. United States, 5 Cir., 87 F.2d 183, 184; Rent v. United States, 5 Cir., 209 F.2d 893. The evidence in this case is entirely consistent with the woman being the sole, willing, and exclusive cause of her own transportation. Indeed, at another point in its brief the Government makes the following remarkable concession:
"It is true that there is not one scintilla of evidence to be found in the record tending to...
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