Partson v. United States

• Decision Date: 16 May 1927
• Citation: 20 F.2d 127
• Parties: PARTSON v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

20 F.2d 127 (1927)

PARTSON v. UNITED STATES.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

May 16, 1927.

Murtha J. Hackett and Hans Wulff, both of St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff in error.

Louis H. Breuer, U. S. Atty., of Rolla, Mo., and Arthur A. Hapke, Asst. U. S. Atty., of St. Louis, Mo.

Before SANBORN and BOOTH, Circuit Judges, and KENNAMER, District Judge.

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

The defendant, Partson, was indicted, tried, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary 16 months and to pay a fine of $500 for a violation of section 3281, Revised Statutes (section 6021, Compiled Statutes), under a count which charged that "on or about the 4th day of October, A. D. 1922, in the county of St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, within the division and district aforesaid, and within the First internal revenue district of Missouri, and within the jurisdiction of the court aforesaid, August Clausen, Joseph Sinovich and Leslie Partson" committed the offense denounced by section 6021 of the Compiled Statutes. The defendant filed a general demurrer to the indictment and therein alleged that the indictment did not set forth sufficient information to require him to answer it. It alleged no other facts descriptive of the offense charged, its time, place, or circumstances or other earmarks than those stated within the quotation marks above, whereby he could identify the alleged offense or whereby, if he was convicted, the indictment and the judgment under it could or would protect him from another prosecution for the same offense.

The averment that the offense was committed on the 4th of October, 1922, was ineffectual for these purposes, because under that allegation the plaintiff could prove an offense committed at any time within three years prior to the filing of the indictment. The allegation of the place was ineffectual, because it permitted the government to prove an offense anywhere in the large county of St. Louis, and this indictment and a judgment of conviction or acquittal under it would not protect the defendant from another prosecution for the same offense, because it did not show when, where in St. Louis county, or under what identifying circumstances the offense was committed.

The rule upon this subject, which has been repeatedly stated and which has the approval of the majority of the members of this court, is that the defendant in a criminal case, in view of his presumed innocence, is not only entitled to know from the statements of the indictment what facts the prosecution considers sufficient to make him guilty of the offense charged with reasonable particularity so that he may procure witnesses and make proper defense thereto, but he is also entitled to demand that the indictment shall charge the essential facts so specifically that the judgment rendered will be a complete defense to a second prosecution for the same offense. Lynch v. United States (C. C. A.) 10 F.(2d) 947, 949; Myers v. United States (C. C. A.) 15 F.(2d) 977, 987, 990; United States v. Hess, 124 U. S. 483, 8 S. Ct. 571, 31 L. Ed. 516; Armour Packing Co. v. United States (C. C. A.) 153 F. 1, 14 L. R. A. (N. S.) 400; Floren v. United States (C. C. A.) 186 F. 961; Miller v. United States (C. C. A.) 133 F. 337, 341; Fontana v. United States (C. C. A.) 262 F. 283; Goldberg v. United States (C. C. A.) 277 F. 211; Weisman v. United States (C. C. A.) 1 F.(2d) 696. The indictment in this case falls far short of the requirements of this rule, and in refusing to sustain the general demurrer to it the court below was in error.

At the close of all the evidence the defendant demurred to the indictment and the evidence — in effect, moved for an instructed verdict. The court overruled his demurrer and motion and he excepted. The charge in the indictment was that August Clausen, Joseph Sinovich and the defendant Partson engaged in and carried on the business of distiller and made and distilled one proof gallon, more or less, of spirits which were subject to the tax imposed by the internal revenue laws of the United States, "with the intent then and there on the part of them, the said August Clausen, Joseph Sinovich and Leslie Partson, to defraud the United States of the tax on said spirits so distilled by them, the said August Clausen, Joseph Sinovich and Leslie Partson." Sinovich was acquitted, Clausen was convicted or pleaded guilty.

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the intent of Partson to defraud the United States out of the tax on the gallon of spirits they were charged with making or had already manufactured was indispensable to Partson's lawful conviction, and the court below so charged the jury. His counsel now invoke the established rules of law and practice that he was innocent of this intent unless he was proved by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to...