United States v. Maxie Dale Howard

Maxie Dale Howard appeals from his conviction for perjury, entered on a jury verdict. He here challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction, the admissibility of certain items of evidence and certain of the instructions to the jury. We hold the evidence presented by the Government insufficient to support the conviction and therefore reverse without reaching the other issues presented by defendant.

Freddie McKinley Smith was tried in a federal district court for violation of the Dyer Act. During the course of that trial, Howard testified under oath that he (Howard) had signed an Avis rental agreement covering the car in question, presenting as identification a Tennessee driver’s license issued in the name of Thomas Hayes. The perjury indictment charged that this testimony was false in that Howard had not rented the car.

At the perjury trial, Mrs. Jansilyn Huff, an employee of Avis at the time of the relevant events, testified that she had rented the automobile involved in the Dyer Act charge. She testified that she rented the car to a man about forty, five feet nine, with reddish-blond hair and a southern accent, and that this man had signed the rental…