Odom v. United States, 9526.
| Decision Date | 12 February 1941 |
| Docket Number | No. 9526.,9526. |
| Parties | ODOM et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Chris Dixie, of Houston, Tex., for appellants.
Douglas W. McGregor, U. S. Atty., and Eugene J. Wilson, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Houston, Tex., for appellee.
Before SIBLEY, HUTCHESON, and McCORD, Circuit Judges.
Appellants A. M. Odom, O. L. Mounce and J. O. Davis were convicted and sentenced for conspiracy to injure James A. Stansbury on account of his having testified as a witness in a court of the United States contrary to 18 U.S.C.A. § 242; and for having endeavored to intimidate and impede Stansbury from testifying as such witness by beating him, with intent to obstruct and impede the administration of justice in a court of the United States, contrary to 18 U.S.C.A. § 241. By a motion for instructed verdict it was and is questioned whether it was sufficiently shown that Stansbury was at the time of the beating known by the defendants to have testified as a witness in federal court, or that he intended thereafter to testify as a witness, and was beaten for that reason; and language of the court's charge is excepted to, bearing on the question of such knowledge.
The prosecution proved these facts: On February 24, 1939, a strike was called by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America against North Texas Motor Freight Lines, Inc. The Union's Local Number 745, of which appellants were members, functioned at Houston, Texas, where a terminal of the Freight Lines was under the management of Stansbury. A picket line was maintained at the terminal, appellants being among the pickets. Stansbury sought to obtain other workers to move the freight, and feeling ran high, and there was disorder, but no personal attack on Stansbury. On March 1, the Freight Lines instituted in the District Court of the United States at Dallas, Texas, proceedings for injunction, to which Local 745 and the appellants personally were parties, among others. A preliminary hearing was set for March 4, and appellants were personally served by the Marshal with notice of it. The appellants did not go to Dallas, but the Local was represented there by its President, its Secretary, and an attorney. The hearing lasted till about 11 o'clock at night, Stansbury testifying as a witness about the disorders at Houston. He was not under subpoena. A preliminary injunction was granted and a hearing for permanent injunction set two weeks later. At about 2 o'clock A. M. from a room in the hotel at Dallas occupied by the President and the Secretary of the Local a telephone conversation was had with the home of the Vice-President of the Local at Houston. What was said did not appear. Later on that day, Sunday, March 5, Stansbury drove by automobile to Houston, and at once went to his office at the terminal, noticing one of the appellants, Odom, and an unknown person sitting across the street, but there was no picket line. Ten minutes later Stansbury came out of the office and found twenty to thirty men congregated, some of whom, including the three appellants, set upon and beat him. Some epithets were used by them, but he heard no reference to the case in court or his being a witness in it. One of his assailants told Stansbury that he had better get away, because the next time they caught him they were going to kill him. Stansbury did appear as a witness at the next hearing, and testified to this assault on him, but to nothing else. The appellants offered no evidence in explanation or contradiction.
The two sections of the criminal statutes here involved were expounded in Pettibone v. United States, 148 U.S. 197, ...
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