                 Defendants - Appellants.



          Appeals from the United States District Court
                For the Southern District of Texas
                         October 17, 1997


Before DUHÉ and BARKSDALE, Circuit Judges, and COBB, District
Judge.1

JOHN M. DUHÉ, JR., Circuit Judge:

     Appellants Joshua Burton and Quinton Carr were convicted and

sentenced for conspiracy to commit robbery, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 371 (“conspiracy”), and for attempted robbery by force,

violence  The men were dressed

in grey sweat suits and wore black masks.    They pointed guns at the

bank employees and threatened to kill the employees if they did not

cooperate.     After unsuccessfully attempting to enter the bank

vault, the men abandoned their robbery attempt.      Before leaving,

the robbers threatened to blow up the bank and left two small

packages they removed from a black duffel bag.      The packages were

actually shoe boxes containing road flares, wires and an alarm

clock and could not be detonated.      The only description of the

robbers the bank employees could provide was that the skin around

their eyes not covered by the masks revealed the men were African-

American.

 