Edward Lewis Short v. United States

Appellant, after trial by jury in the district court for the Territory (now State) of Alaska, at Ketchikan, was convicted on the charge of bribery and sentenced to five years imprisonment, four and a half years of which were suspended with the provision that the suspended period be spent on probation. Final judgment having been rendered December 12, 1957, before Alaska became a State by virtue of the President’s Proclamation No. 3269, of January 3, 1959, 48 U.S.C.A. note preceding section 21, this Court has appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 , 1294. See Parker v. McCarrey, 9 Cir., 1959, 268 F.2d 907 .

The bribery, a violation of the territorial law, § 65-7-4, A.C.L.A.1949, arose in the course of a police investigation into an attempt to open the city of Ketchikan to certain unlawful activities, such as gambling and prostitution. Edward Bolton, who had lived in Ketchikan for about six years and was a bartender at a local hotel, discussed several times the possibility of “opening up” the city with Walter O. Smith, a patrolman of the Ketchikan Police Department. Smith testified that Bolton finally told him that he had arranged to have a girl come to Ketchikan and Bolton…