United States v. Edwards

The Farmers Bank of Malone, Florida was held up on the morning of August 14, 1972 by three Negro males who escaped in a taxicab with almost 43,000 dollars. Within four hours officers arrested Charles Pierce and Willie Lee Ward, Jr. at the home of Priscilla Hearn, a local resident. At the time of arrest they recovered 16,900 dollars of the loot and several items of incriminating paraphernalia connected with the robbery. McArthur Edwards was arrested that afternoon and Charles Darnell Ward, the brother of Willie Lee Ward, was apprehended two days later in Atlanta, Georgia. All four men were jointly indicted for conspiracy to rob and robbery of the bank. Pierce and Willie Ward pled guilty to the charge of bank robbery and were sentenced to 20-year terms of imprisonment. Edwards and Charles Ward were jointly tried on a two-count indictment before a jury that found Edwards guilty on both counts, for which he received concurrent sentences of 20 and 5 years. Ward was acquitted of the substantive offense, but was convicted on the conspiracy charge, for which he received a five-year sentence. Because the issues raised by each are completely different, we will discuss the appeals of Ward and Edwards separately.