Therman McGriff v. United States

Appellant appeals from a judgment of conviction, resulting from a jury trial on an indictment charging a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641 , in that the appellant did “receive, conceal and retain, with intent to convert to his own use and gain, stolen goods and property of the United States, of a value in excess of $100.00. * * * ”.

18 U.S.C. § 641 uses the words “receives, conceals or retains” in the disjunctive. The indictment uses them in the conjunctive. “[I]t is * * * proper to charge conjunctively the elements of a crime which is denounced disjunctively in the statute, and a finding of any one of the said elements will support a verdict of guilty,” Arellanes v. United States, 302 F.2d 603, 609 (9 Cir. 1962), cert. denied 371 U.S. 930 , 83 S.Ct. 294 , 9 L.Ed.2d 238 (1962), and cases there .cited.

The instruction given the jury on the elements of the offense used the verbs in the disjunctive. This was proper. The verdict was in the disjunctive. Appellant cannot complain, since the verdict bars a further prosecution based on any of the disjunctive verbs in the statute. Turf Center, Inc. v. United States, 325 F.2d 793, 796 (9 Cir. 1963).

When the court read the indictment to the…