Title: State v. Nicola

State: north-dakota

Issuer: North Dakota Supreme Court

Document:

182 N.W.2d 870 (1971) The STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Kenneth NICOLA, Defendant and Appellant. Crim. No. 407. Supreme Court of North Dakota. January 20, 1971. Helgi Johanneson, Atty. Gen., John E. Adams, Asst. Atty. Gen., and William G. Engelter, Asst. State's Atty., Bismarck, for plaintiff and respondent State of North Dakota. Zuger, Bucklin, Kelsch & Zuger, Bismarck, for defendant and appellant. STRUTZ, Chief Justice. The defendant was charged with the crime of desecrating a flag of the United States, committed by allegedly exposing to public view a representation of the flag of the United States upon which there was found a "peace" symbol on the field of blue where the stars representing the States of the Union normally appear. He was tried before the Honorable W. J. Austin, judge of the Burleigh County Court of Increased Jurisdiction, and was found guilty. *871 From the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for new trial, the defendant has appealed to this court. In support of his appeal, the defendant has served certain specifications of error, one of which is: Sections 12-07-04 and 12-07-05 read as follows: The flag which the defendant displayed and exposed to public view was a flag with thirteen stripes, seven red and six white, appearing alternately. A blue field appears in the upper left corner of the flag, where there is found a "peace" symbol but no stars as in a United States flag. The law prohibits the desecration of a flag of the United States or a representation of such flag by placing upon it or attaching to it in any manner We have researched decisions in other jurisdictions which involve the desecration of the flag, and we concur in the results reached in most of them. In Joyce v. United States, 259 A.2d 363 (D.C.App. 1969), the defendant took an American flag off a wooden post, tore it, and tied its pieces to his index finger and raised his hand with index and middle fingers in a V-position, waving it over his head. The court upheld the defendant's conviction. In People v. Cowgill, 274 Cal. App. 2d Supp. 923, 78 Cal. Rptr. 853 (1969), the California court upheld the conviction of the defendant for publicly mutilating, defacing, and defiling a flag of the United States when he caused such flag to be cut up and sewn into a vest, and then wore the vest on the street. In People v. Radich, 26 N.Y.2d 114, 308 N.Y.S.2d 846, 257 N.E.2d 30 (1970), the defendant was convicted of desecrating the flag of the United States after he had had the flag made into the form of a human body and had hung the body from a yellow noose. In all of the above cases, it will be noted, the defendant desecrated or mutilated a flag that admittedly was a flag of the United States. In the case before us, however, the flag was manufactured as something entirely different from a United States flag. The purpose of our law is to prohibit any disfiguration of the United States flag. It is the flag itself which the law seeks to protect from desecration. The law does not attempt to protect any flag which happens to have a prevailing idea of scheme of red and white stripes. It is obvious that we would not pledge allegiance to the flag which is before us in this case. That being true, we cannot consider it a flag of our country for purposes of this prosecution. We find that the flag of the United States was not desecrated by the defendant, nor was a representation of such flag desecrated. The flags displayed never were flags of the United States, nor did they purport to be. Therefore, we must reverse the conviction of the defendant. Since the conviction is reversed, the other specification of error urged by the defendant need not be considered. TEIGEN, ERICKSTAD, PAULSON and KNUDSON, JJ., concur.