Capshaw v. State

1940 OK CR 78, 104 P.2d 282, 69 Okla. Crim. 440, 1940 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 57
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 19, 1940
DocketNo. A-9685.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1940 OK CR 78 (Capshaw v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Capshaw v. State, 1940 OK CR 78, 104 P.2d 282, 69 Okla. Crim. 440, 1940 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 57 (Okla. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

JONES, J.

An indictment was presented and filed in the district court of Oklahoma county against L. H. Capshaw, Frank Wilkins, and Ed W. Spivey, charging them with the offense of receiving a bribe; a severance was granted; the defendant L. H. Capshaw waived a trial by jury, was tried by the court, adjudged to be guilty and sentenced to serve a term of four years imprisonment in the state penitentiary, and has appealed.

The defendant Capshaw was a royalty broker in Oklahoma City. The particular offense charged herein alleged that the defendant, together with his codefendants Frank Wilkins, attorney for the board of education, and Ed W. *442 .Spivey, a member of the board of education, received a bribe in the sum of $600 to procure a sale and transfer of certain royalty known as the Wheeler school royalty by the board ;of education of Oklahoma City to one Robert Dalgleish for the sum of $8,100.

This court in the case of Spivey v. State, 69 Okla. Cr. 397, 104 P. 2d 263, decided June 13, 1940, has passed on most of the legal propositions raised by this defendant in his brief, contrary to the contentions of the defendant.

In Spivey v. State, supra, we held that Spivey was an executive officer under the provisions of section 1907, O. S. 1931, 21 Okla. St. Ann. § 382, which was the statute under which this indictment was presented. We further held that, under the wording of our statute and in accordance with the construction which has been consistently placed thereon, the bribe givers were accomplices of the bribe receivers, and that the general rule as to the necessity for the corroboration of accomplice testimony would apply. That there was, however, sufficient independent evidence, aside from the testimony of the accomplice to sustain the conviction.

One of the issues raised in this case, which was not settled in Spivey v. State, supra, is the contention of the defendant that he, not being an officer, could not be charged in the same indictment with Ed Spivey, who was an officer of the Oklahoma City school district, to wit, a member of the school board, because the Oklahoma statutes set forth two distinct crimes:

(1) The giving of a bribe by a person not an officer.

(2) The receiving ¡of a bribe by a person who is an officer.

The prosecution was conducted upon the theory that the defendant Capshaw was not a public officer, but that *443 lie was a layman who acted conjointly and together with Spivey, who was a public officer, and Wilkins, and conspired with them, and as their agent and part of their general scheme, did ask for and receive a bribe to influence Spivey in his official conduct as a member of the Oklahoma City school board.

Section 1808, O. S. 1931, 21 Okla. St. Ann. § 172, provides:

“All persons concerned in the commission of crime, whether it be felony or misdemeanor, and whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, though not present, are principals.”

In 8 Am. Jur. 896, under Bribery, it is stated:

“ * * * A person may be guilty of a conspiracy to commit bribery, wen though he could not, by reason of his status, commit bribery.”

In 11 C. J. S., Bribery, § 5, p. 857, we find the same rule in slightly different language, to wit:

“A person who aids and abets another to bribe an officer in violation of law may be held equally guilty with his principal, regardless of whether he was actually present or not at the time the bribe was given. Likewise, one who aids, counsels, or conspires with an officer to- procure a bribe may be guilty, as a principal, of the offense of asking or receiving a bribe.”

In the case of People v. Anderson, 75 Cal. App. 365, 242 P. 906, 909, the District Court of Appeal of California had before it a case very similar to the instant case. In the Anderson Case the defendant, Mporewood, was a lawyer and private citizen, and he, acting for and on behalf of the chief of police and other officers, accepted a bribe to get certain criminal cases dismissed by the chief of police and to corruptly influence certain officers in their *444 duty relative thereto. Moorewood, the private citizen, made the same contention as is made by the defendant in this case. In disposing of that case, the District Court of Appeal of California used the following language:

“Appellant Morewood contends that, as section 68 of the Penal Code only refers to certain officers as being amenable to its provisions, and that as it is neither alleged nor proven that he was an officer of the class mentioned in said section of the Code, nor any officer whatever, he could not be found guilty of bribery as charged in the indictment; therefore the judgment against him cannot stand. It is true that as a private citizen he could not as a principal be guilty of the crime of bribery as defined by the above Code section. But in conjunction with pne or more of the officers mentioned in said section of the Code, and as an accomplice of such officer, he could be guilty of the crime as defined by said section 68, Pen. Code, §§ 31 and 971; People v. Bartol, 24 Cal. App. 659, 142 P. 510; People v. Horn, 25 Cal. App. 583, 144 P. 641; Bishop v. State, 118 Ga. 799, 45 S. E. 614.”

In the case of White v. State, 43 Ga. App. 748, 159 S. E. 897, it was held:

“Private individual who receives money to influence city council, may be guilty pi bribery, if he aids, counsels, or conspires with city official.”

In the case of People v. Coffey, 161 Cal. 433, 119 P. 901, 39 L. R. A., N. S., 704, it is stated:

“An intermediary representing one who desires to influence the action of a public board by bribery, who makes the bargain’ with the members and delivers their compensation, is an accomplice with one agreeing to receive and receiving the bribe, under a statute defining accomplices as all persons concerned in the commission ¡of crime, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, so that his uncorroborated testimony is not sufficient to convict the latter.”

*445 The California statute is identical with the Oklahoma Code in that it obliterated the common-law distinctions between principals in their different degrees and accessories, and declared that all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, whether it be felony or misdemeanor, and whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense or aid and abet in its commission, or not being present have advised and encouraged its commission, are principals.

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Bluebook (online)
1940 OK CR 78, 104 P.2d 282, 69 Okla. Crim. 440, 1940 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 57, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/capshaw-v-state-oklacrimapp-1940.