UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE,
v.
JAMES E. WILLIAMS, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT

5th Cir. | 1973-03-02
No. No 72-3119
474 F.2d 1047 Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1973) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain a conviction for conspiracy, even if the substantive crimes alleged were not fully proven.


Facts & Procedural History

James E. Williams was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States by stealing and negotiating Treasury checks and stealing state welfare chec…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM:

PER CURIAM:

James E. Williams was convicted of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 under an indictment alleging a conspiracy (a) to defraud the United States Government by stealing, forging, and negotiating United States Treasury checks in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 495 and (b) to steal state welfare checks from the United States mails in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1708. Williams contends on appeal that the government failed to prove either that the conspirators stole and forged Treasury checks or that the state welfare checks which were cashed were stolen from the mails.

To sustain a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 371, the prosecution must demonstrate an unlawful agreement and at least one independent act in furtherance of the agreement. It need not show that the conspirators committed the substantive crime which is charged in the indictment as the object of the conspiracy. Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 334, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1084, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356, 1384 (1957). Nor is it necessary to substantiate each of the overt acts al leged in the indictment. Bradford v. United States, 413 F. 2d 467 (5th Cir. 1969).

Assuming arguendo that the evidence in the present case was insufficient to establish the specific violations of 18 U.S.C. § 495 and 18 U.S.C. § 1708 alleged in the indictment, it was amply sufficient to establish both the conspiracy alleged and numerous overt acts in furtherance of that unlawful agreement.

The appellant’s conviction is

Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw