Ernest E. Pitman v. United States

Ernest E. Pitman, appellant herein, was convicted by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada of assault with a dangerous weapon during a bank robbery, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (d). He filed a timely appeal in this court which has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, nor does he complain of the instructions given to the jury. His first assignment of error is that the indictment is defective because (1) it fails to charge that he willfully committed the acts set out in the indictment and for that reason does not charge a crime; and (2) because it erroneously charges more than one crime in a single count. The charging part of the indictment is set out in the margin. The statute under which the appellant was indicted reads as follows:

There is no merit to either of appellant’s challenges to the indictment. The indictment charges the crime in the language of the statute. That is sufficient. Smith v. United States, 250 F.2d 37 (4th Cir. 1957) cert. denied 355 U.S. 965 , 78 S.Ct. 555 , 2 L.Ed.2d 540 . Cf. United States v. Parisi, 365 F.2d 601 (6th Cir. 1966);…