Jose Isaias Corrales-Jacobo v. United States

This is an appeal from a conviction for dealing in narcotics under 21 U.S.C. § 174 . The sole specification of error is that the district court allegedly failed to instruct the jury that the defendant must have known that the substance with which he was engaged in the proscribed conduct was a narcotic. We have reviewed the conduct of the trial by the district court, and we find that the jury was in no way misled as to the essential elements of the offense charged, and that the jury was instructed that appellant must have knowingly dealt in narcotics.

The statutory provision in question reads in pertinent part as follows:

The record unambiguously demonstrates that the .trial court impressed the jury with the fact that the receipt, concealment, purchase, sale, or facilitation of transportation of the narcotic specified in the indictment must have been performed “knowingly.” Appellant admits this fact, but contends that the trial judge must also instruct the jury that the defendant must have known that the substance which he knowingly received, concealed, etc., was in fact a narcotic drug. We find he did just that.

We cannot understand how it would be possible for one who…