Opinion
No. 71-2359.
October 14, 1971.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; Manuel L. Real, Judge.
Taylor J. Daigneault (appeared), Daigneault, Abel Daigneault, Torrance, Cal., for defendant-appellant.
Paul Sweeney, Asst. U.S. Atty. (appeared), Robert L. Meyer, U.S. Atty., Eric A. Nobles, Chief, Crim. Div., Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee.
The judgment of conviction in this marijuana transportation case is reversed. The main problem is on the knowledge of importation from Mexico. We regard the "smell" of the gasoline and the aerial map of a portion of Mexico found in the plane as just too thin to sustain a conviction here beyond a reasonable doubt.
Obviously, the defendant who transported over one-third of a ton of marijuana violated Arizona and California laws, but federal officials chose to keep the case with all of its Leary problems (Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6, 89 S.Ct. 1532, 23 L.Ed.2d 57 (1969)). We assume that neither the California nor the Arizona statute of limitations has yet run.