Paul John Carbo v. United States of America, Joseph Sica v. United States

Appellants in this case have petitioned this court for bail pending their appeals from convictions of offenses under the General Conspiracy Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371 , the Hobbs Anti-Racketeering Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951 , and the Interstate Extortion Communication Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 875(b). Upon these convictions Carbo has been sentenced to twenty-five years’ imprisonment and a ten thousand dollar fine. Sica has been sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment and a ten thousand dollar fine.

Petition for bail pending appeal has been made to the district court and has been denied, the district judge basing his denial upon his prophecies in two distinct areas. He found likelihood that if these appellants are released from custody, (1) they would abscond, and (2) trial witnesses would be molested and threatened and perhaps actually harmed.

While this is not technically an appeal from the action of the district court, but is an original application to this court, our function remains essentially one of review. As this court stated in Fiano v. United States, 9 Cir., 1958, 259 F.2d 135 , 136:

Appellants here contend, first, that there is no sufficient evidence to justify the district…