United States v. William E. Earl and James Lavelle Cupit

JOHN W. PECK, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-appellants Earl and Cupit were convicted on a jury verdict in district court of transporting on February 12, 1974, from Tennessee to Kentucky one Page whom they allegedly had pre viously kidnapped for robbery. 18 U.S.C. § 1201 (Supp. IV 1974). Earl and Cupit were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Briefly, the undisputed facts are that Page, a serviceman, was returning by automobile to Fort Campbell from a music clinic in Dyersburg, Tennessee. Page offered appellants, then walking alongside the highway, or perhaps “hitchhiking,” a ride, which they accepted.…