Miguel Moran Ramirez v. United States

I. Background

On August 21, 1958, a jury found appellant guilty on three counts of an indictment charging him with having violated 21 U.S.C.A. § 174 . He filed a notice of appeal, and this Court has jurisdiction by virtue of 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1294(1). Before turning to the points appellant has specified on this appeal, we deem it advisable to summarize certain portions of the testimony.

The principal government witness was Emory Slack, a Special Employee of the Bureau of Narcotics. During the evening of April 26, 1958, Slack had a telephone conversation with appellant’s nephew about the possibility of purchasing narcotics from appellant, and, the following day, the nephew introduced appellant to Slack over the telephone. During the morning of April 28, 1958, appellant telephoned Slack and arranged a meeting place. Shortly thereafter, appellant and Slack met, drove in the latter’s automobile, and finally began to discuss narcotics transactions. Slack testified that appellant told him that he could supply Slack with any amount of narcotics that Slack would need; that all he had to do was to telephone Mexicali, and “within a few hours a man would be on his way with the junk;”…