Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/765

 '758 FEDEEAL REPORTER. �to accomplish the same unlawful purpose or object, one per- forming one part, and another another part of the same, so as to complete it, although they never met together to concert the means, or to give effect to the design. Nor is it neces- sary that the conspiracy should originate with the persons charged. Every one coming into a conspiracy at any stage of the proceedings, with knowledge of its existence, is regarded in law as a party to ail the acts done by any of the other parties, before or afterwards, in furtherance of the common design. 3 Gr. Ev. § 93. �In determining the question of conspiracy it will be safe for you to reckon Mrs. Lewis as one of the parties. She con- fesses in her testimony, and by her plea of guilty to this in- dictment, that she was one, and however much you may be disposed to weigh or sift or doubt her evidence as to others, you are authorized to accept it as altogether true as to her- self. Did she stand alone in her attempt to defraud the gov- ernment, or were others implicated with her ? If one other, then you wiU find that a conspiracy was formed, because only two are necessary to complete the ofifence. She states that one of the defendants, Park, originated the scheme for her ta personate the widow of Joseph L. Lewis, in order to defraud the United States, and that his motive in doing so was to share with her the fruits, to-wit, the money to be obtained from the estate of Lewis. �Much has been said as to the weight which the jury ought to give to the testimony of co-conspirators, and here ia perhaps the proper place for me to submit to you a few obser- vations on that subject. The fact that a witness is a co-con- spirator doubtless operates, and ought to operate, largely against the credibility of his testimony, but the jury is not bound to reject it on that account. Whiist it would be unsafe, in ordinary cases, to convict any one upon the uneorroborated testimony of accomplices in the crime, the rule of law un- doubtedly is that they are competent witnesses, and it is your duty to consider their evidence. You are to weigh it and serutinize it with great care. You are to test its truth by inquiring into the probable motive which prompted it. You ����