91 F. 374 | D. Wash. | 1898
(orally charging jury). This case will be submitted to you for your decision as to the general .question of
This indictment is founded upon section 5430 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which provides, among other things, “that any person who has in his possession or custody, except under authority from the secretary of the treasury or other proper officer any obligation or other security engraved and printed after the similitude of any obligation or other security issued under the authority of the United States, with intent to sell or otherwise use the same,” shall be guilty of an offense, and be punished as the statute provides. Under that law it is an offense for a person to have possession of an obligation or security, unless he is acting under authority of the government, if that obligation or security is printed or engraved in the similitude or likeness of any of the government's obligations or securities, provided his possession is with intent to sell it, or to make any other use of it. Now, you will understand from this statement that it makes no difference how the person came into possession. Whether he made or bought it or found it makes no difference. If it is a guilty thing,—a thing that is prohibited by law,—and he has it in his possession, and retains it, with the intent to make use of it, it is a violation of this statute. The intent must be a criminal intent. An intent to sell it, or to malee some profitable use of it, so as to make a profit to himself out of it, is the kind of an intent that is necessary as an element of the crime to justify a conviction. To warrant a conviction in this case, it must be found by this jury from the evidence that this piece of paper introduced in evidence is some sort of an obligation or security,— that is, a paper evidencing an obligation of some person or corporation, or evidencing an interest in property which would be regarded as a security,—something that secures a right of some value, and that it is printed or engraved in the similitude of some obligation of the government of the United States. Now, right here is a vital point in this case, which the jury must carefully consider. This paper will be given to you to take to your jury room, and it is for you to determine the question, as a question of fact, whether or not the printing or the engraving on that paper is in the similitude of any government obligation or government security. If you find it to be so,—if that is your best judgment, and the unanimous verdict of the jury,—then one of the important facts in the case will be determined against the defendant. If it does not appear to you that it is in the similitude of any government obligation or security, that fact will be determined in favor of the defendant; and, if you decide this point in favor of the defend-, ant, you must acquit him without going further.
Now, the similitude must be in such a degree as to furnish a resemblance so near to the government obligations or securities that it •could be used to deceive a person of ordinary intelligence, who is acting with ordinary care, in a business transaction. The resemblance is sufficient for the purpose if you believe that it would probably deceive a person taken unawares, in dealing with a person whom he believed