United States v. Woods, 448.

• Decision Date: 10 July 1933
• Docket Number: No. 448.,448.
• Citation: 66 F.2d 262
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. WOODS et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

66 F.2d 262 (1933)

UNITED STATES v. WOODS et al.

No. 448.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

July 10, 1933.

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Harold L. Turk, of Brooklyn, N. Y., for Libero Santaniello.

Phillip F. Seigenfeld, of Brooklyn, N. Y., for Mary Woods, Carmine Bruno and Salvatore Gesoalde.

Howard W. Ameli, U. S. Atty., and Herbert H. Kellogg, Emanuel Bublick, and Murray Kreindler, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of Brooklyn, N. Y., for the United States.

Before MANTON, SWAN, and CHASE, Circuit Judges.

CHASE, Circuit Judge (after stating the facts as above).

The appellants press us to reverse because they say the testimony of Mills is insufficient to sustain the convictions, and this, not because the testimony of an accomplice, even though uncorroborated, will not serve as a matter of law, or that it lacks in breadth or scope to implicate them, but because, as they say, Mills was so unworthy of belief as shown by his confused and contradictory testimony that no court should allow a jury to believe him. That Mills was a drunkard and had elected to save himself as best he could by testifying for the government is certain. It is also true that in respect to times and places he was not always so clear and consistent that the charge that he was in error in some details can be successfully met. But, even so, his testimony leaves one who reads it morally sure that these appellants were all acting in concert with him and others to manufacture and pass counterfeit money. That being so, McGinniss v. United States (C. C. A.) 256 F. 621, upon which the appellants rest their claim to reversal, can be used only as indicating a comparative test on the question of the credibility of an accomplice. General language applied to one witness cannot always, indeed can rarely, furnish the decisive means for determining whether another witness should be believed. With the law well settled that the testimony of an accomplice need not be corroborated to support a conviction, Caminetti v. United States, 242 U. S. 470, 495, 37 S. Ct. 192, 61 L. Ed. 442, L. R. A. 1917F, 502, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 1168; United States v. Mule (C. C. A.) 45 F.(2d) 132, the issue now before us is whether we can and should say that no impartial jury could reasonably have believed Mills. The answer can be found only by reading the record in this case, and from that we can reach no other conclusion than that it was not only reasonable to believe that these appellants were connected with the counterfeiting as Mills testified, but that it would have been a miscarriage of justice had the trial resulted in anything but their conviction.

As to Bruno, moreover, there was corroboration in the testimony of Teale, himself an accomplice to be sure, but his testimony was clear-cut and was unshaken. And as to Mrs. Woods there can be little doubt that she was trying to dispose of the back plate when she was arrested. Yet the conviction of Libero Santaniello and of Gesoalde must stand upon the testimony of Mills alone, aided only by the evidence of officers who saw them frequently visit the Woods house but did not know what they did there.

With the conspiracy thus established, little need be said of the conviction under the second count charging possession of the plate. It...