United States v. Walker, 71-3064 Summary Calendar.
Decision Date | 03 March 1972 |
Docket Number | No. 71-3064 Summary Calendar.,71-3064 Summary Calendar. |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William Arrington WALKER, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Jasper B. Roberts (Retained Counsel), L. H. Walden, Montgomery, Ala., for defendant-appellant.
Ira DeMent, U. S. Atty., D. Broward Segrest, Asst. U. S. Atty., Montgomery, Ala., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before THORNBERRY, COLEMAN and INGRAHAM, Circuit Judges.
Appellant was tried and convicted of five counts of the substantive offense of forgery of United States Postal Money Orders, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 500. He raises two points of error on appeal:
The record reveals that appellant was indicted for the forgery of five stolen money orders and that the alleged accomplice, one Sanford by name, was indicted for uttering the very same stolen and forged money orders. At issue under appellant's first point of appeal is whether the grand jury could have returned a single indictment against both Walker and Sanford. Appellant argues that the offense of forgery and the offense of uttering the forgery are similar, but are not identical offenses. Therefore, he argues that Rule 8(a), F. R.Crim.P., would have made a joint indictment impermissible. He concludes this argument with the logical jump that since joint indictment would be inappropriate, a joint trial of separate indictments was also inappropriate. An inherent fallacy plagues this argument and is apparent upon a reading of Rule 8, F.R.Crim.P. Rule 8 provides:
As can be seen from this record, the offense of forging five money orders and the offense of passing the same five money orders were part of a connected scheme or plan to obtain specie for worthless paper. Neither the joinder of offenses nor of defendants was improper.
As Judge Ainsworth, speaking for the court in Tillman v. United States, 406 F.2d 930 (5th Cir., 1969), noted:
A reading of the record on appeal reveals that counsel for appellant objected to joinder of defendant Sanford prior to trial. His opposition to joinder was based upon a claim that Walker's and Sanford's defenses were inconsistent. The record, however, does not reveal that the claimed inconsistencies ever materialized. A fortiori an opposed motion to...
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