Opinion ID: 1487677
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Sufficiency of the Overt Acts.

Text: Appellant's basic objection to the sufficiency of the overt acts in the case at bar is that mere words, the expression of opinions and ideas for the purpose of influencing people, cannot constitute an overt act of treason; that appellant had a right to broadcast, or otherwise disseminate to the American people, the ideas which coincided with the Nazi propaganda line; and that therefore his preliminary steps to that end  his attendance at conferences of commentators, his preparation of commentaries, his speaking into a microphone to make recordings  cannot be treasonable acts. There are occasional statements to be found in the books to the effect that mere words cannot amount to an overt act of treason. Thus, Mr. Justice Nelson, in a Charge To The Grand Jury reported in 30 Fed.Cas. page 1034, at 1035, No. 18,271 (C.C.S.D.N.Y.1861), said: Words oral, written or printed, however treasonable, seditious or criminal of themselves, do not constitute an overt act of treason, within the definition of the crime. In Wimmer v. United States, 6 Cir., 1920, 264 F. 11, 12, 13, the court said: It is well settled that one cannot, by mere words, be guilty of treason. See also United States v. Werner, D.C.E.D.Pa.1918, 247 F. 708. That is true in the sense that the mere utterance of disloyal sentiments is not treason; aid and comfort must be given to the enemy. But the communication of an idea, whether by speech or writing, is as much an act as is throwing a brick, though different muscles are used to achieve different effects. One may commit treason by conveying military intelligence to the enemy, though the only overt act is the speaking of words. Other cases may readily be imagined where the speaking of words might constitute treason. Thus, suppose an enemy agent in this country, whose assigned mission was to defeat the consummation of a scientific research project of vital importance to the war effort, bribed and seduced a distinguished American scientist, a consultant in the project, to give an opinion that the work was proceeding on the wrong lines and to suggest procedures which he knew would lead the project down a blind alley: We take it that the scientist in such a case could be convicted of treason, for deliberately giving aid to the enemy agent in steps essential to the consummation of his hostile mission, though the only overt acts were expressing purported scientific opinions. The significant thing is not so much the character of the act which in fact gives aid and comfort to the enemy, but whether the act is done with an intent to betray. In Cramer v. United States, supra, 325 U.S. at page 29, 65 S.Ct. at page 932, 89 L.Ed. 1441, the Court said: On the other hand, a citizen may take actions which do aid and comfort the enemy  making a speech critical of the government or opposing its measures, profiteering, striking in defense plants or essential work, and the hundred other things which impair our cohesion and diminish our strength  but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason. [Italics added.] We have not overlooked a possible constitutional limitation upon treason prosecutions for the making of critical speeches. We do not lose our right to condemn either measures or men because the country is at war. Frohwerk v. United States, 1919, 249 U.S. 204, 208, 39 S.Ct. 249, 251, 63 L. Ed. 561. Chandler owed allegiance to the political entity the United States, not to the person of the President nor to the party in power for the time being. The framers of the Constitution, in drafting the restrictive language of the treason clause, apparently had in mind to eliminate the historic misuse of treason prosecutions as an oppressive instrument of domestic political faction, as indicated in the study on Treason in the United States by Willard Hurst in 58 Harv.L.Rev. 395, 412 (1945): What is suggested is that the historic policy restrictive of the scope of `treason' under the Constitution was most consciously based on the fear of extension of the offense to penalize types of conduct familiar in the normal processes of the struggle for domestic political or economic power. The sale of provisions to an enemy in wartime, or the conveying of intelligence to him, or the proffer of counsel and assistance to his agents, are types of conduct quite distinct from activities of a sort to which political opponents or economic groups would normally resort in their efforts to influence public policy. There is less danger that charges of this type could, in view of the sharply defined character of the conduct in question, be used to suppress free competition for the power to direct the policies of the republic. Thus, a citizen in the exercise of his ordinary political rights may  intemperately as he pleases  criticize the President for getting the country into war, hold up to ridicule the bungling and incompetence with which our civilian and military leaders are conducting the war, express the view that we cannot possibly win the war, and that the thing to do is to vote in a new administration which will negotiate a peace on the best terms obtainable and save the country from a greater disaster. The speech may tend to weaken our country in its war effort by inducing divided counsels and a spirit of defeatism, and in that sense may be of aid and comfort to the enemy. Such, indeed, might be the speaker's purpose. But if it be assumed that the utterance in the case supposed would not be treason, whatever the speaker's purpose, the immunity would be afforded, not to encourage treasonable efforts to aid in the enemy's triumph, but in order that, in the course of the normal activities of political opposition, the expression of honest criticism and sincere conviction as to what is best for the country may not be fettered by fear of a jury's finding of traitorous purpose in the passion and tumult of a subsequent prosecution for treason. Assuming that the utterances in the case supposed would not be treason, they might still be punished as sedition, subject to the requirement of the First Amendment that the utterances must be in such circumstances and of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. Schenck v. United States, 1919, 249 U.S. 47, 52, 39 S.Ct. 247, 249, 63 L.Ed. 470. In the present case, however, it cannot be said that what Chandler did was merely exercising his right of free speech in the normal processes of domestic political opposition. He trafficked with the enemy and as their paid agent collaborated in the execution of a program of psychological warfare designed by the enemy to weaken the power of the United States to wage war successfully. We have found no indication of a reluctance on the part of the framers of the Constitution to punish as treason any breach of allegiance involving actual dealings with the enemy, provided the case is established by the required two-witness proof. It is preposterous to talk about freedom of speech in this connection; the case cannot be blown up into a great issue of civil liberties. What we already have said is perhaps sufficient to indicate the answer to a related argument by appellant, that If words can be acts of treason, they must at least meet the test of `clear and present danger' established in the sedition cases as a deduction from the First Amendment. Trafficking with the enemy, in whatever form, is wholly outside the shelter of the First Amendment. Congress may make criminal any type of dealing with the enemy which in its judgment may have the potentiality of harm to our national interests, including acting as a commentator on the enemy's short wave station. Conviction could be had under such a criminal statute whether or not the prohibited acts, in the particular case, actually created any clear and present danger of substantial harm to the United States. The concluding portion of the treason clause provides: No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. As observed in the Cramer case, 325 U.S. at pages 47, 48, 65 S.Ct. at page 941, 89 L.Ed. 1441: It is not difficult to find grounds upon which to quarrel with this constitutional provision. Perhaps the framers placed rather more reliance on direct testimony than modern researches in psychology warrant. Or it may be considered that such a quantitative measure of proof, such a mechanical calibration of evidence is a crude device at best or that its protection of innocence is too fortuitous to warrant so unselective an obstacle to conviction. However that may be, the salutary purpose of this evidentiary obstacle was to minimize the danger of convicting the innocent. The nature of the crime is such that prosecutions for treason were thought likely to be conducted in a virulent atmosphere, with the triers of the facts all too prone to infer the commission of an overt act from circumstantial evidence. Not only was direct testimony required, but direct testimony of two witnesses, and they had to be two Witnesses to the same overt Act. The two-witness rule must be applied in the light of its underlying policy. Sometimes the overt act charged may be a single isolated act, such as disclosure of battle plans to an enemy agent. In such case the overt act must be proved by the direct testimony of two witnesses who heard the conversation between the accused and the enemy agent. Sometimes, as in the case at bar, the treason may consist of a course of conduct in a single treasonable enterprise. In Haupt v. United States, 1947, 330 U.S. 631, 640, 67 S.Ct. 874, 878, 91 L.Ed. 1145, the Court said: And while two witnesses must testify to the same act, it is not required that their testimony be identical. Most overt acts are not single, separable acts, but are combinations of acts or courses of conduct made up of several elements. It is not easy to set by metes and bounds the permissible latitude between the testimony of the two required witnesses. [Italics added.] May such treasonable course of conduct be established by the direct testimony of two or more witnesses, though no two witnesses could testify to the same atomized element of the course of conduct? We have no doubt that treason may be predicated upon collaboration as an enemy agent in the execution of a program of psychological warfare beamed to the United States over the enemy's short wave radio. That being so, the case against Chandler has been established by the most satisfactory and overwhelming proof. There is no possibility that he has been convicted of something he did not do. The contracts of employment which he executed are in evidence. Not two, but half a dozen or more witnesses testified of their personal knowledge to his continuous day-by-day participation in the work of the short wave station  attendance at conferences to receive directives as to the current propaganda line, the preparation of manuscripts for his regular Paul Revere broadcasts, and the submission of them subsequently for censorship, collaboration occasionally with other employees of the short wave station in the preparation of special programs to be broadcast jointly, the making of recordings for subsequent broadcasts, etc. The authenticity of the twelve sample Paul Revere recordings introduced into evidence was established by competent testimony, and is not challenged by the defendant. In a statement prepared and signed by Chandler after he was brought back to this country, which statement was received in evidence without objection, he tells the story of his employment as a commentator on the short wave station, though of course he protests that in all he did he was actuated by patriotic motives. It has been assumed by the Government that the two-witness rule required the prosecution to break down the continuous course of conduct into its separate episodic elements and to produce two witnesses to the same element  for instance, two witnesses who could testify that they saw and heard Chandler make a recording on a particular identified occasion. For the reasons suggested above, and bearing in mind the underlying policy sought to be served by the two-witness rule, we are not sure that the requirement was as exacting as the Government has supposed. Two-witness proof that Chandler made a recording on an identified occasion does not render any more convincing the already indubitable case in support of the generalized charge in the indictment that the aforesaid adherence of said defendant, Douglas Chandler, and the giving of aid and comfort by him to the aforesaid enemies of the United States during the period aforesaid consisted of working as a radio speaker and commentator in the U.S.A. Zone of the short wave station of the German Radio Broadcasting Company, a company controlled by the German Government, which work included the preparation and composition of commentaries, speeches, talks and announcements, and the recording thereof for subsequent broadcast by radio from Germany to the United States. Two-witness proof of the fragmented elements of Chandler's course of conduct only adds a burden to the prosecution in the nature of an empty technicality. But we shall assume, without deciding, that that burden did rest upon the prosecution. It then becomes necessary to examine the ten overt acts submitted to the jury, in the light of the statement in the Cramer case, 325 U.S. at page 34, 65 S.Ct. at page 934, 89 L.Ed. 1441, that The very minimum function that an overt act must perform in a treason prosecution is that it shows sufficient action by the accused, in its setting, to sustain a finding that the accused actually gave aid and comfort to the enemy. Possibly the overt acts, viewed in rigid isolation and apart from their setting, would not indicate that they afforded aid and comfort to the enemy. But viewed in their setting, which is set forth above under the heading Factual Summary, they certainly take on incriminating significance. They then appear as typical routine activities of Chandler in fulfillment of the purpose of his continuous employment as radio commentator for the German Propaganda Ministry over a period of three years. The enemy's mission which Chandler participated in forwarding  the objective of the German Short Wave radio program beamed to the United States  also appears as part of the setting. It was an obvious advantage to the enemy in the execution of that program to have the open assistance of a cultivated and widely traveled American citizen like Chandler. [5] That the enemy deemed Chandler's services to be of aid and comfort is attested by the high salary which they paid him. These services consisted not merely of the culminating act of making a recording, but also of the necessary preliminary acts directed to that end. They were all part and parcel of the totality of aid and comfort given by the course of conduct as a whole. Attending a conference of commentators, at the summons of the Chief of the U.S.A. Zone, in order that directives as to the current propaganda line might be relayed and discussed and individual assignments made, could reasonably be found to have been of aid and comfort to the enemy. The proof under overt acts 4 and 5 established Chandler's participation in two such conferences. And certainly the making of recordings by Chandler, on the occasions proved under overt acts 17 and 18, warranted findings that Chandler gave aid and comfort to the enemy. The evidence under overt act 17 showed two recordings by Chandler on the same occasion: one a recording for his regular Paul Revere broadcasts, and another a recording of a special mixed program of poetry and music. The evidence under overt act 18 showed the making of a dialogue recording by Chandler and one Sittler, who was employed as a translator in the U.S.A. Zone. It is immaterial that the enemy mission as a whole, which defendant assisted, did not achieve its purpose. In Haupt v. United States, supra, one of the overt acts relied on was accompanying a known enemy saboteur to the house of the superintendent of an optical company for the purpose of assisting the saboteur to obtain employment as a step in the fulfillment of his hostile mission. See 7 Cir., 152 F.2d 771, at pages 774, 775. It did not appear that the saboteur actually obtained the desired employment. He was apprehended a short time thereafter and his whole mission frustrated. Yet the overt act was deemed sufficient. The act aided an enemy of the United States toward accomplishing his mission of sabotage. The mission was frustrated but defendant did his best to make it succeed. 330 U.S. at page 644, 67 S.Ct. at page 880, 91 L.Ed. 1145. So, in the present case, it makes no difference how many persons in the United States heard or heeded Chandler's broadcasts. It does not even matter whether the particular recordings proved under overt acts 17 and 18 were actually broadcast. Chandler's service was complete with the making of the recordings, which thus became available to the enemy to use as it saw fit. It was no part of Chandler's job to put the recordings on the air. His act of making the recording for the enemy is like giving to an enemy agent a paper containing military information, which would be a completed act of aid and comfort, though the enemy agent later lost the paper and thus never put the information to any effective use. Appellant points out that the witnesses who testified to the making of the Paul Revere recording referred to in overt act 17 were unable to recall the content of that particular recording. This is not surprising, since it was a routine performance which Chandler repeated two or three times a week during the whole period of his employment. But does the two-witness rule require the witnesses to negative the hypothesis, which might be conceived of by a highly imaginative person, that on that particular occasion Chandler called on the American people to redouble their efforts to rescue the freedom-loving peoples of Europe from Hitler's monstrous tyranny? That would indeed be making a joke of the whole business. As stated in Haupt v. United States, 330 U.S. at page 640, 67 S.Ct. at page 878, 91 L.Ed. 1145, it is not required that testimony be so minute as to exclude every fantastic hypothesis than can be suggested. The overt act of making the Paul Revere recording was attested to by two witnesses; its incriminating character was illumined by the other evidence in the case, by the setting in which the act was done. [6] It was thus perceived to be a participating act by Chandler meshed in with the psychological warfare being conducted by the German Short Wave Station. Nor would it be of consequence if, in the particular recording testified to under overt act 17, Chandler confined his talk to cultural topics or to the reading of poetry. The radio programs devised by his superiors contained balanced elements of news, commentary, music and entertainment. This was necessary, as Chandler well appreciated, in order to gain listener interest, and to render the listeners more receptive to insinuation of the propagandist ideas. [7] Though Chandler was hired by the enemy as a commentator, he was also fitted into the other parts of the program as seemed useful to his superiors from time to time. It is not necessary to refer in detail to the evidence on the other overt acts submitted to the jury. Since the jury returned special findings as to each of the overt acts, to the effect that it was a treasonable act committed by the defendant Chandler with an intent to betray the United States, it is enough if any one of the overt acts, in its setting, warranted a finding that the accused actually gave aid and comfort to the enemy. See Haupt v. United States, 1947, 330 U.S. 631, 641 n. 1, 67 S.Ct. 874, 91 L.Ed. 1145.