Robert L. Perkins v. United States

Around the corner from the Seagull Tavern, in Seattle, on the night of November 22, 1960, William “Little Fox” Miller was said to have sold and delivered a quantity of narcotic drugs to Albert “Grey Eyes” Johnson. Robert Lee Perkins was charged, in several counts of a multiple-count indictment, with having aided and abetted Miller in this enterprise. Convicted by a jury on two counts, Perkins appeals from the judgment and sentence thereupon entered.

Appellant raises questions concerning the sufficiency of the evidence, rejection of tendered evidence, correctness of instructions, and asserted Government use of perjured testimony. Several of these questions stem from the circumstances that Perkins was charged as an aider and abettor under 18 U.S.C. § 2 (a) and (b), and that, under the Government’s theory and evidence, he could not have himself been a direct participant in the actual transfer of the narcotics to Johnson. The facts necessary to be considered in deciding these and other questions, viewed in the light most favorable to the Government, are stated below.

In November, 1960, Johnson, a special employee of the Bureau of Narcotics, and one Carroll R. Gibson, a…