United States v. Harry Hergenrader

I respectfully dissent. There is no doubt that the evidence revealed a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1708, which makes it unlawful to take mail matter from a post office or to remove any article or thing from any such mail matter.1 Appellant was not charged under that section, however; he was charged with theft by a postal employee of mail matter “intended to be conveyed by mail” under 18 U.S.C. § 1709. In all of the cases cited in the majority opinion, the decoy mail matter was placed in the normal work flow before being removed therefrom by the postal employee and thus can reasonably be said to…