Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/351/215/case.html
Timestamp: 2017-10-22 04:41:48
Document Index: 363326708

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 451', '§ 12', '§ 12', '§ 12', '§ 6', '§ 12', '§ 456']

Johnston v. United States (full text) :: 351 U.S. 215 (1956) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 351 › Johnston v. United States › Case
These two cases concern the prosecution of three defendants for violations of the provisions of the Universal Military Training and Service Act. 50 U.S.C.App. § 451 et seq. We must determine the proper venue for the trial of these crimes.
Crim.Proc. [Footnote 1] The Oklahoma court retransferred the case to Kansas, as it thought the venue was there. The Kansas court thereupon dismissed the indictment on the ground that the venue was in Oklahoma. United States v. Patteson, 132 F.Supp. 67. The judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. 229 F.2d 257.
"ORDER TO REPORT FOR CIVILIAN WORK"
"STATEMENT OF EMPLOYER"
Personal Director [Footnote 2]
The indictment in each case charges the registrant, a conscientious objector, [Footnote 3] with violation of § 12(a) of the Act. [Footnote 4] In the Johnston indictment, the pertinent language is:
We are led to this conclusion by the general rule that, where the crime charged is a failure to do a legally required act, the place fixed for its performance fixes the situs of the crime. [Footnote 5] The possibility that registrants might be ordered to report to points remote from the situs of draft boards neither allows nor requires judicial changes in the law of venue. No showing of any arbitrary action appears in these cases. Article III of the Constitution and the Sixth Amendment fix venue "in the State" and "district wherein the crime shall have been committed." The venue of trial is thereby predetermined, but those provisions do not furnish guidance for determination of the place of the crime. That place is determined by the acts of the accused that violate a statute. This requirement of venue states the public policy that fixes the situs of the trial in the vicinage of the crime, rather than the
residence of the accused. Cf. United States v. Anderson, 328 U. S. 699, 328 U. S. 705. A variation from that rule for convenience of the prosecution or the accused is not justified. The result would be delay and confusion. [Footnote 6]
This rule was followed in United States v. Johnson, 323 U. S. 273, relied on by the registrants, where a maker and shipper of dentures mailed in Illinois was charged in Delaware, the State of receipt by a consignee, with violating the law by "use" of the mails "for the purpose of sending or bringing into" a State such dentures. Id. at 323 U. S. 274. This Court, by interpretation of the statute, restricted prosecution of the shipper to the State of the shipment, saying:
Id. at 323 U. S. 277-278. [Footnote 7]
Venue for these prosecutions lies where, under § 12(a), supra, the registrants did
were made subject to § 12(a) by § 6(j), which declares that a conscientious objector who fails or neglects to obey an order of his local board shall be deemed to have "failed or neglected to perform a duty required of him" by § 12. [Footnote 8]
The orders set out above, p. 351 U. S. 218, could only be the basis of one conviction, but they directed the registrant to perform two duties. The first is to report to the local board. This was done by each registrant. The second is to report for employment and to remain there in employment for 24 consecutive months. The "instructions to proceed" given by the board, and the statement that "failure . . . to proceed to the place of employment pursuant to instructions" would constitute a crime, are for the registrant's information. They did not create another duty. This appears emphatically from the characterization in the explanatory paragraph that failure to report or proceed to the place of employment would be a violation of orders. The crimes charged arise from failure to complete the second duty -- report for employment. Accordingly venue must lie where the failure occurred. See cases cited above, note 5
Rumely v. McCarthy, 250 U. S. 283; United States v. Lombardo, 241 U. S. 73; Jones v. Pescor, 169 F.2d 853; New York Central & H. R. Co. v. United States, 166 F. 267. See cases cited in United States v. Anderson, 328 U. S. 699, 328 U. S. 705, note 14, and see United States v. Wyman, 125 F.Supp. 276, 280. Compare state court decisions which hold that a State may punish a father for nonsupport of his child even though the defendant is outside the State while committing the offense. Comment, 6 Stan.L.Rev. 709.
Cf. United States v. Lombardo, 241 U. S. 73, 241 U. S. 78; Haas v. Henkel, 216 U. S. 462.
See also United States v. Wilson and United States v. Purchasing Corp., 344 U.S. 923, where, in an interpretation of a statutory duty to "forward" a report of shipments under the Tobacco Tax Act, 63 Stat. 884, we approved the District Court judgment that venue for prosecution was in the district of the shipper, rather than the district of the receiver of the report.
We ruled in the case of Dodez v. United States, 329 U. S. 338, that Dodez had exhausted his administrative remedies, and therefore could defend on indictment his failure when he violated an order to report to the local board for work of national importance. Venue was laid in the District of the Board. No question was raised or decided here as to venue. Petition for certiorari, p. 2; Brief of the United States. Furthermore as the United States points out in this case at the time of Dodez' breach, the Government delivered the conscientious objector registrants to the place of work. See Order to Report for Work, R. 155, No. 86, 1946 Term.
Patteson, who lives in Oklahoma and defied his draft board there, is required to stand trial in Kansas. Johnston and Sokol, who live in the Western District of Pennsylvania and defied their draft board there, are forced by this decision to stand trial in the Eastern District. Yet each defied the law at home, not in the distant place. Unlike United States v. Anderson, 328 U. S. 699, no act of any kind was committed in the distant district. Unlike Rumely v. McCarthy, 250 U. S. 283, and United States v. Lombardo, 241 U. S. 73, Congress has not specifically selected the failure to perform an act in the distant district and made it a crime. The statutory crime is the failure of a conscientious objector, directed to perform civilian work, "to obey any such order from his local board." 62 Stat. 612, as amended, 65 Stat. 86, 50 U.S.C.Appendix, § 456(j). The argument in the case has been like a theological debate over the number of angels who can stand on the head of a pin. Of course, the duty to obey can be divied up into a whole series of duties. But, when the registrant is adamant in his refusal to budge from his home town and stays at home defying the local authorities, the crime he has committed has been committed at home.
"thereby the inestimable Privilege of being tried by a Jury from the Vicinage, as well as the Liberty of summoning and producing Witnesses on such Trial, will be taken away from the Party accused. *"
The boys in the present cases suffer comparably. For their defiance of their local boards they are sent to distant places for trial where they have no friends, where they are unknown, and to which all witnesses must be transported. Congress would have the power to fix the venue there. But it has not done so unambiguously. Cf. United States v. Midstate Horticultural Co., 306 U. S. 161, 306 U. S. 166; United States v. Johnson, 323 U. S. 273, 323 U. S. 276. I would read the statute with an eye to history and try the offenders at home where our forefathers thought that normally men would receive the fairest trial.