Stassi v. United States
Decision Date | 08 June 1931 |
Docket Number | No. 9086.,9086. |
Citation | 50 F.2d 526 |
Parties | STASSI v. UNITED STATES. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Sloane Turgeon, of Kansas City, Mo. (T. C. Swanson, of Kansas City, Mo., on the brief), for appellant.
Harry L. Thomas, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Kansas City, Mo. (William L. Vandeventer, U. S. Atty., of Kansas City, Mo., on the brief), for the United States.
Before VAN VALKENBURGH and BOOTH, Circuit Judges, and MUNGER, District Judge.
The defendant was found guilty of the offenses of unlawful possession and transportation of intoxicating liquor, in violation of the National Prohibition Act (27 USCA). It appears that the charge of possession had been dismissed before the trial, and the sentence under that count, therefore, cannot be upheld. While the evidence was conflicting it was sufficient to show that the defendant transported a quantity of intoxicating liquor in an automobile for a distance of five blocks. The defendant admitted the possession of the liquor, that he intended to sell it, that he had placed the liquor in his automobile for transportation, but claimed that he had not started to transport it when he was arrested. He testified that he had offered to pay the officer who arrested him $200 if he would release him. At the trial the defendant was represented by an experienced attorney. The assignments of error relate to alleged errors during the reception of evidence, in the arguments made to the jury by the prosecuting attorney, in a portion of the instructions given to the jury by the court, and in the court's failure to instruct the jury on features of the case. It is conceded that no objections or exceptions were taken to the matters now complained of, except that objection was taken to portions of the argument made to the jury by the prosecuting attorney. Appellant contends that it was the duty of the court to instruct the jury on every essential question of law involved in the case, whether requested to do so or not, and that the judgment should be reversed because of omissions to instruct, and because of an alleged error in the instructions given.
The rule as to the right of review of a failure to give instructions to a jury, where no request was made, was stated in an early case by Justice Story in Pennock v. Dialogue, 2 Pet. 1, 15, 7 L.Ed. 327, as follows:
This rule has been followed by that court ever since that decision. United States Express Company v. Kountze Brothers, 8 Wall. 342, 353, 354, 19 L. Ed. 457; Shutte v. Thompson, 15 Wall. 151, 164, 21 L. Ed. 123; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Snyder, 93 U. S. 393, 394, 23 L. Ed. 887; Texas & Pacific Railway v. Volk, 151 U. S. 73, 78, 14 S. Ct. 239, 240, 38 L. Ed. 78; Myers v. Pittsburgh Coal Company, 233 U. S. 184, 195, 34 S. Ct. 559, 58 L. Ed. 906. In Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Snyder, supra, the court said: "But the omission of the learned judge to instruct the jury on a particular aspect of the case, however material, cannot be assigned for error, unless his attention was called to it with a request to instruct upon it."
In Texas & Pacific Railway v. Volk, supra, the subject was considered more at length, and the rule was restated:
The same question has arisen in criminal cases decided by that court.
In Hickory v. United States, 151 U. S. 303, 316, 14 S. Ct. 334, 339, 38 L. Ed. 170, in holding that exceptions to instructions were properly taken the court said:
In Isaacs v. United States, 159 U. S. 487, 490, 16 S. Ct. 51, 53, 40 L. Ed. 229, the rule was stated:
The question arose again in Goldsby v. United States, 160 U. S. 70, 77, 16 S. Ct. 216, 219, 40 L. Ed. 343, and it was said:
In Humes v. United States, 170 U. S. 210, 211, 18 S. Ct. 602, 42 L. Ed. 1011, the court stated that a part of the assignments of error related to the failure of the court to give certain instructions, and that the record failed to show that there was a request for such instructions, and the opinion then says: "We cannot regard as error the omission of the court to give instructions which were not asked. In Isaacs v. United States, 159 U. S. 487, 491, 16 S. Ct. 51 40 L. Ed. 229, Mr. Justice Brown said: Nor are instructions which were given, but not excepted to, subject to review. Tucker v. United States, 151 U. S. 164, 14 S. Ct. 299 38 L. Ed. 112; St. Clair v. United States, 154 U. S. 134, 153, 14 S. Ct. 1002 38 L. Ed. 936.
In these decisions there is no suggestion that a different rule applies in criminal cases from the rule in civil cases, and in the criminal cases the court cites its prior decisions in civil cases as determinative.
The same question has frequently arisen in cases in the United States Courts of Appeal. It has sometimes been said that it is the duty of the trial judge to instruct the jury on all essential questions in a criminal case, whether requests for such instructions are or are not made. What are essential questions has not been defined. It is obvious that any question involved in a case, whether relating to the principles of law, the nature of the issues, or the estimation of the evidence, may be regarded as an essential question in the jury's...
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