Court Opinion

ID: 9453092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:01:56.969253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:30.069168
License: Public Domain

KILEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The government was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kurki “did wilfully and unlawfully fail to report for induction to his Local Board No. 60 * * * [in] Racine, Wisconsin” on August 10, 1965.
In my opinion the record is not sufficient to prove the essential element of knowledge or wilfulness beyond a reasonable doubt. It is admitted that Kurki appeared at the Board office at the appointed hour of 6:00 a. m. on August 10, 1965. The letters Kurki wrote before and his distribution of the literature during his appearance in themselves are of no consequence to the question of his guilt. And here they are not enough to clarify and raise to the level of criminality Kurki’s responses to the ambiguous questions of the Board personnel. Cf. Chernekoff v. United States, 219 F.2d 721, 725 (9th Cir. 1955).
Miss Hogan testified that after Kurki identified himself to Miss Patel1 the latter asked him, “Are you going today?” and that he said “no.” Then Miss Hogan ordered Kurki to leave “immediately” and repeated the order to leave as he stood at the door. When the other inductees and the Board employees went outside to “put the boys on the bus” for the Milwaukee Induction Center, Kurki was still outside, but Miss Hogan said “he left immediately.” On cross-examination she stated Miss Patel asked in the office, “Are you going for induction this morning?” and “She asked him if he was going to report for induction.” (Emphasis added.) Miss Hogan testified Kurki was not asked if he was going to get on the bus. The court’s opinion puts the statements of trainee-employee Miss Patel, as related not by Miss Patel but another Board employee, in the disjunctive, indicating uncertainty about which was the fact. Even taking this testimony in the light most favorable to the government, I think the trier of fact should have found a reasonable doubt as to the wilfulness of Kurki’s failure to report.
The record seems to me to suggest understandable pique in the Board personnel because of Kurki’s conduct. But I do not think this is sufficient to preclude Kurki’s reliance on his right to a procedure similar to that outlined in Chernekoff v. United States, 219 F.2d at 724.
The fact that defendant was a witness does not relieve the government of its burden of proof. He had no obligation to express at his trial any doubts he had about the Local Board’s procedures or at what point he would be guilty of violating the law. The government had the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he wilfully failed to report for induction.
In my opinion only a most restricted view of what is fair can preclude reliance here upon Selective Service Regulations because they were not “cited below.” This court’s holding in United States v. Miroff, 353 F.2d 481, 483 (7th Cir. 1965), does not preclude that reliance. That was a civil suit for judgment for unpaid taxes and to enforce a tax lien, and the holding of waiver was with reference to a “minor contention.” And under United States v. Tyrrell, 329 F.2d 341, 345 (7th Cir. 1964), another civil tax case cited by the majority, the rule of waiver is not applied to jurisdictional grounds such as due process, or when it is not in the interests of justice. I think Kurki is entitled to try to set aside this unfair conviction by arguing from the regulations governing induction that he was prejudiced by failure of proof of the felony of knowingly and wilfully failing to report for induction.
Kurki faces two years in prison, the penalty for the offense charged being the *909same as that for refusing to submit to induction, “imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than $10,000,” or both. 62 Stat. 622 (1948), 50 U.S.C. App. § 462 (1964). There is no reason why the rule in Chernekoff v. United States, 219 F.2d at 725, should not require a more formal, clear resolution of the wilfulness of a defendant’s conduct than the record here discloses.
The fact that the regulations do not require more than what was done here by the Local Board does not excuse a lack of evidence to prove wilfulness in this case beyond a reasonable doubt. If the regulation required only what was done here in order to convict a defendant, in my opinion it would be constitutionally infirm for failing to provide due process.
The government, to sustain a conviction for “refusal to submit to induction,” is required under Chernekoff to prove that the induction ceremony followed the prescribed regulations as to the routine of the registrants in submitting, and that registrants who refused to take the “step forward” were warned of the penal consequences, had the “imminence of induction” statement reread to them, and finally were requested to sign a formal statement of refusal. The court there said Chernekoff should have been given the opportunity to “seriously reflect” on the consequences of his action, 219 F.2d at 725, and I think the denial of this opportunity to Kurki creates a reasonable doubt as to his wilfulness.
After Kurki left the Board office there was still an opportunity to ask or order him to board the bus and to explain the gravity of his decision and the penalty facing him. This is not a case where a registrant has failed to report for induction by absenting himself, thus making it impossible for any warnings to be given. I would hold that where a registrant has entered the premises of the Local Board on the day appointed, he cannot be convicted of failure to report unless warnings adequate under Chernekoff are given or unless his subsequent departure was in no way caused by draft board officials.
I would reverse.

. Miss Patel did not testify.