Ferguson v. District of Columbia

HOOD, Chief Judge:

Appellant was convicted of vagrancy under D.C.Code 1961, § 22-3302(1).1 Following the statutory language the information charged appellant as a vagrant, to wit: “a person known to be a pickpocket, thief, burglar, confidence operator and felon either by his own confession or by his having been convicted in the District of Columbia or elsewhere of any of said offenses,” etc. The arresting officer, the government’s only witness, testified he had never seen appellant in person before the arrest, “and the knowledge he had of the defendant was a record at the precinct on file…