Opinion ID: 331054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: abatement and pardon

Text: 23 The federal gambling statute under which Chiarizio was convicted,18 U.S.C. § 1955, makes it a federal offense to violate a state law provision outlawing gambling. Only if a state anti-gambling law is violated is there criminal liability under the federal statute. 24 Chiarizio points out that the Connecticut anti-gambling statute mentioned in the federal grand jury indictment, Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 53--295, has been repealed during the course of his prosecution. Therefore, he argues, the doctrine of abatement and pardon, which prevents prosecution or entry of judgment under a law repealed since the initiation of the criminal proceedings, prevents his conviction. 25 This argument ignores the fact that § 53--295 was not simply repealed by the 1973 General Assembly, but was replaced by an updated statute incorporating essentially the same substantive offense. Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 53--278a et seq. Section 53--295 was an old statute, the language of which had become quite archaic by 1973. Section 53--278a et seq., its immediate successor, merely incorporates the same offenses in more modern language. 26 The purpose of the abatement and pardon doctrine is to prevent the injustice manifest in continuing to prosecute a person for an activity after the legislature has declared that activity to be lawful. Hamm v. Rock Hill,379 U.S. 306, 312, 85 S.Ct. 384, 13 L.Ed.2d 300 (1964); Bell v. Maryland,378 U.S. 226, 84 S.Ct. 1814, 12 L.Ed.2d 822 (1964). It would be far too mechanical an interpretation of the pardon and abatement doctrine to hold that a formal change in statutory provisions which leaves the substantive offense intact proscribes prosecution. Hence, this basis for appeal is rejected.