Edward Douglass White

“ Without entering into any nice question of grammar, or undertaking to discuss whether the word 'said,' before Haughey's name, and the words 'as aforesaid,' which follow it, are adverbial, we think the plain and unmistakable statement of the indictment, as a whole, is that the acts charged against Haughey were done by him as president of the bank, and that the aiding and abetting were also knowingly done, by assisting him in the offcial capacity, in which alone it is charged that he misapplied the funds. ”

“ The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law. ”

“ The assertion that one who is not an officer, or who bears no official relation to the bank, cannot, in the nature of things, aid or abet an official of the bank in the misapplication of its funds, is an argument which, if sound, should be addressed to the legislative, and not the judicial, department. ”

“ It says: 'This presumption is in the nature of evidence in his favor [i. e. in favor of the accused] , and a knowledge of it should be communicated to the jury. Accordingly, it is the duty of the judge, in all jurisdictions, when requested, and in some when not requested, to explain it to the jury in his charge. The usual formula in which this doctrine is expressed is that every man is presumed to be innocent until his guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. ”

“ We cannot destroy the law on the theory that the acts which it forbids cannot be committed. In other words, the construction which we are asked to give does not deal with the meaning of the statute, but simply involves the claim that it is impossible to prove the commission of the offense defined by the law. The question whether the proof shows the commission of an offense is one of fact, and not of law. ”

“ But the presumption in favor of innocence is not to be redargued by mere suspicion. I am sorry to see, in this information, that the public prosecutor treats this too lightly. He seems to think that the law entertains no such presumption of innocence. ”

“ The phrase 'every person' is manifestly broader than the enumeration made in the first portion of the statute. In other words, the unambiguous letter of the law is that every president, director, agent, etc., who commits the designated offenses, shall suffer the penalties provided, and that every person who aids or abets such officer, etc. The argument is that no one but an officer or an agent can be punished as an aider and abettor, and hence that every person who aids and abets, not being an officer, shall go unwhipped of justice. ”

“ The counts, therefore, charge maladministration of the affairs of the bank rather than criminal misapplication of the funds.' So, in Northway's Case, we said, 'It is of the essence of the crime of misapplication that there should be conversion of the funds to the use of the defendant, or of some other person than the association.' The various counts of the indictment here are all substantially alike in stating the conversion. We take the second as an example. ”

“ It presupposes that where there is an averment that a person or matter is unknown to a grand jury, and no evidence upon the subject of such knowledge is offered by either side, acquittal must follow, while the true rule is that, where nothing appears to the contrary, the verity of the averment of want of knowledge in the grand jury is presumed. ”

“ The intent with which the misapplication is charged to have been committed is not uniform in all the counts. In some it is averred that the misapplications were made to injure and defraud the bank and certain companies, bodies politic, bodies corporate, and individual persons, whose names are to the grand jurors unknown ”

“ Thus, the first count charges the receipt and placing to the credit of the Indianapolis Cabinet Company of a bill of exchange amounting to a certain number of pounds sterling, followed by the averment that the company thereupon drew its check for said amount. It is contended that the check offered to show the payment of this money was for dollars and not for pounds sterling, and therefore there was a variance between the indictment and the proof. This contention, we think, is without merit. ”

“ All these questions are therefore eliminated. We shall hence only consider the matters which are pertinent to the remaining counts, and shall examine first the objections made to the indictment generally, based upon the contention that all the counts fail to charge an offense; second, the exceptions reserved to rulings of the court during the trial, the effect of which is to assail the verdict and judgment without reference to the validity of the indictment. ”

“ Trajan wrote to Julius Frontonus that no man should be condemned on a criminal charge in his absence, because it was better to let the crime of a guilty person go unpunished than to condemn the innocent.' Dig. ”

“ The averment that the names of these persons were unknown to the grand jurors is a material averment, and is necessary to be proven by the government, in order to make out its case in each of said counts, because in each of said counts the charge is of a misapplication of a single, definite, fixed sum, with an intent to convert the same to the use, not merely of the cabinet company, but of other persons. ”

“ The sum of the misapplication was the amount stated as credited in consequence of having taken the bill of sterling exchange.
On the subject of the counts covering the charge of false entries in the books of the bank, the following requests were made and refused:
'No. 18. In considering the false-entry charges in the indictment, it is necessary that you should know what constitutes a false entry. The books of account of a bank are kept for the purpose of accurately and truly recording the financial transactions of the bank. ”

“ Coffin v. United States
By section 5209 of the Revised Statutes, relating to national banks, certain acts therein enumerated are made misdemeanors punishable by imprisonment for not less than 5 nor more than 10 years. ”