United States v. Joseph Calhoun, United States of America v. John Childress

FINNEGAN, Circuit Judge.

The cold record as filed in our Court, on appeal from convictions in criminal cases, supplies the data for our opinions. Salvaging convictions for the government on the basis of margin evidence and conjecture is outside our reviewing function. These two appeals, by Calhoun and Childress, respectively are prime examples of narcotic trafficking, abhorrent to all decent citizens, but improperly handled at the accusatory and trial level when these defendants were tried jointly by the district judge sitting without a jury. These prosecutions were grounded on a five count…