Criminal Law

Brief

People v. Jaffe

Procedural History:

• Defendant convicted.
• Appealed.
• Conviction sustained by the Appellate Division.
• Appealed.
• Reversed.

Facts:

• October 6, 1902, defendant purchased 20 yards of clothe, of the value of 25 cents a yard.
• The cloth belonged to the copartnership of Goddard & Son.
• The defendant knew the said property had been feloniously stolen, taken and carried away from the owners.
• Section 550 of the Penal Code provides that a person who buys or receives any stolen property knowing the same to have been stolen is guilty of criminally receiving such property.

Issue:

• Whether upon an indictment for receiving goods, knowing them to have been stolen, the defendant may be convicted of an attempt to commit the crime where it appears without dispute that the property which he sought to receive was not in fact stolen property?

Holding:

• No. Reversed.

Reasoning:

• Proof showed that as the time the defendant attempted to purchase the materials, they had lost their character as stolen goods.
• The property had been restored to the owners and was wholly within their control and was offered to the defendant by their authority and through their agency.
• There could be no such thing as knowledge on the part of the defendant of a nonexistent fact, although there might be a belief on his part that the fact existed.
• The act, which it was doubtless the intent of the defendant to commit, would not have been a crime if it had been consummated.
• Just believing the property to have been stolen is not enough, he must know.