Reagan v. United States case brief

Reagan v. United States case brief summary
157 U.S. 301 (1895)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Defendant sought review of an order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, which entered judgment on a jury verdict convicting defendant of unlawfully, fraudulently, willfully, knowingly, and with intent to defraud the United States, receiving into his possession and concealing cattle smuggled into the United States from Mexico and overruled defendant's motion for a new trial.

CASE FACTS
A jury found defendant guilty of smuggling 40 head of cattle into the United States from Mexico. Defendant claimed that the district court erred in granting him only three peremptory challenges, in instructing the jury, and in overruling his motion for a new trial.

DISCUSSION

• The court affirmed defendant's conviction for cattle smuggling. 
• The court held that U.S. Rev. Stat. § 2865 provided that smuggling was a misdemeanor, that the subordinate offense of receiving and concealing smuggled cattle under U.S. Rev. Stat. § 3082 imposed the same penalty and was also a misdemeanor, and that the district court did not err in granting defendant three peremptory challenges. 
• The court held that the district court did not err in instructing the jury to consider defendant's interest in the outcome when weighing his testimony, that defendant's credibility was entitled to be impeached where defendant availed himself of the privilege to testify, that district court was entitled to call the jury's attention to any matters which affected defendant's testimony and credibility, and that the district court's overruling of defendant's motion for a new trial was not reviewable.

CONCLUSION
The court affirmed defendant's conviction for cattle smuggling.


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