Charles C. Coleman v. United States

BAZELON, Circuit Judge

(dissenting).

I would affirm the conviction on the ground that appellant has not shown it to be erroneous. I do not agree that the appeal should be dismissed as frivolous.

Upon appellant’s petition for leave to> appeal in forma pauperis and upon the Government’s opposition thereto, a panel of this court granted such leave. Their decision did not imply that appellant was bound to succeed in his appeal, but only that he made contentions not “plainly without color of merit and frivolous.” Cf. Corrigan v. Buckley, 1926, 271 U.S. 323, 329, 46 S.Ct. 521, 523, 70 L.Ed. 969. From the “full record now before us” and from the briefs and arguments, we may well conclude, as I do, that appellant’s contentions are without merit, so that his appeal cannot succeed. But since a wrong contention is not the same as a frivolous contention, the “full record” discloses no more ground for dismissal of the appeal than the motion papers disclosed to our colleagues for denying leave to appeal in the first place.