Donald Allyn McCullough v. United States

Appellant was charged with four codefendants in a three count indictment of theft of governmental property; the re-ceipt and concealment of the same, and the illegal sale of such property. Convicted on all three counts by a jury, he urges as error on this appeal: (1) the conviction is invalid because based on the uncorroborated testimony of accomplices; (2) the insufficiency of the evidence to show the materials stolen were property of the United States having a value in excess of $100; (3) the defendant should not have been convicted of two crimes, i. e. stealing and receiving the same goods.

I

We have repeatedly refused to change our long held rule that the federal courts, unlike some state courts, do not require the corroboration of an accomplice’s testimony implicating a defendant. White v. United States, 315 F.2d 113, 115 (9th Cir. 1963), and cases cited therein.

Were we disposed to change this principle and require corroboration from a non-accomplice to convict, we could not do so here. The participation of McCullough in the sale of the platinum, and the receipt of $1,574 and $2,589.20 by him as the purchase price of some of the stolen material (Gov. Ex. 10) were…