Crank

The accused in this ease is one of several charged in an indictment containing six counts which generally charge unlawful importation of liquor; the unlawfulness consisting of violation of the revenue laws. He was convicted on the fourth count alone. The charging part of that count is that the accused did “knowingly, wilfully and unlawfully receive * * * 100 cases of intoxicating liquor which * * * had been theretofore unlawfully imported * * * into the United States contrary to law,” in that the same had been theretofore imported without a permit, without having been entered at the custom house and without payment of the duties thereon. The statute, violation of which (section 593 (b), Tariff Act of 1922, 19 USCA § 497), provides that, if any person receives or conceals merchandise after importation, knowing the same to have been imported or brought into the United States contrary to law, he shall be subject to certain penalties.

The accused presents a motion in arrest of judgment, claiming that the indictment does not charge an offense, in that it fails to charge knowledge on the part of defendant that the goods were imported contrary to law. The same point was urged in a…