John El Stone v. United States

357 F.2d 257
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMarch 4, 1966
Docket21977_1
StatusPublished

This text of 357 F.2d 257 (John El Stone v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John El Stone v. United States, 357 F.2d 257 (5th Cir. 1966).

Opinion

GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judge:

This appeal is from a judgment of conviction entered on six counts of an indictment after a trial by the court without a jury. Appellant waived jury trial. The indictment was in sixteen counts and was returned against appellant, James Woodrow Stone and Isadore Miller.

Count I charged appellant with violating 26 U.S.C.A. § 7203 by accepting wagers during the period October 1, *258 1962 through June 30, 1963 without having paid the special occupational tax imposed by 26 U.S.C.A. § 4411 and due under 26 U.S.C.A. § 4901. He was sentenced to sixty days in prison and fined $1,000 on this count. He was placed on probation for three years and sentenced $1,000 each on convictions under Counts IV, VII, X, XV, and XVI, the sentences of probation to run concurrently. Count IV charged him with a violation similar to that charged in Count I for the period October 1, 1961 through June 30, 1962. Counts VII and X charged him with violating 26 U.S.C.A. § 7203 by accepting wagers during certain periods without having registered as required under 26 U.S.C.A. § 4412. Count XV charged all three of the defendants with violating 18 U.S.C.A. § 371, and § 7203, supra, by conspiring to conduct a business of accepting wagers without first paying the special occupational tax. Count XVI charged them with violating § 7203 by failing to make excise tax returns on taxes due under 26 U.S.C.A. § 4401. Counts XIII and XIV were dismissed by the government, and the other counts related solely to James Woodrow Stone or Isadore Miller.

There are four assignments of error. Each of the counts in issue are said to be invalid in that the registration and special occupational tax statutes, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 4411, 4412 and 4901 compel disclosures which would incriminate the registrant in view of the criminal provisions of 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1952, 1953 and 1084, 1 and the penal provisions of the State of Texas against gambling. Consequently, it is argued, they are violative of appellant’s constitutional privilege under the Fifth Amendment. It is urged that the District Court erred in overruling the motion for judgment of acquittal on this ground. The other three assignments question the sufficiency of the evidence.

The self incrimination argument as respects the penal provisions of the state law was put to rest by the Supreme Court in United States v. Kahringer, 1952, 345 U.S. 22, 73 S.Ct. 510, 97 L.Ed. 754. The constitutionality of the registration provision was upheld for the reason that the Fifth Amendment applies only to past conduct and the registration provision was construed as applying to future conduct. In Lewis v. United States, 1954, 348 U.S. 419, 75 S.Ct. 415, 99 L.Ed. 475, federal laws against gambling in the District of Columbia were said to give rise to the self incrimination claim but the Supreme Court followed the reasoning of Kahringer and again affirmed. These authorities are subsisting and binding on this court. But, appellant argues, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1952, 1953 and 1084, Footnote (1), supra, making specified interstate gambling activities unlawful, have been enacted in the interim and they render the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Kahringer and Lewis inapplicable.

The argument is that the registration provision may serve as a “link in a chain of evidence” to convict one of past interstate gambling activity under these stat *259 utes. The fallacy in this argument is that we do not have such a case. This prosecution is not brought under these interstate gambling activity statutes, and thus we are not presented with a question of evidence of registration and payment of the special occupational tax having been admitted to prove a charge of either prior or subsequent illegal conduct. Cf. United States v. Zizzo, 7 Cir., 1964, 338 F.2d 577, cert. den., 381 U.S. 915, 85 S.Ct. 1530, 14 L.Ed.2d 435, where a registration and an occupational tax return were held admissible in a prosecution brought under 18 U.S.C.A. § 1952. There the registration and return preceded the enactment of § 1952.

The constitutionality of the registration and occupational tax provisions was upheld in the face of these new interstate gambling activity statutes in United States v. Cefalu, 7 Cir., 1964, 338 F.2d 582, citing United States v. Zizzo, supra, as authority. This view was reaffirmed by the Seventh Circuit in United States v. Altiere, 7 Cir., 1964, 343 F.2d 115, vacated by Supreme Court on other grounds, 86 S.Ct. 529; and United States v. Angelini, 7 Cir., 1965, 346 F.2d 278. See also United States v. Costello, 2 Cir., 1965, 352 F.2d 848.

Appellant relies on Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 1965, 382 U.S. 70, 86 S.Ct. 194, 15 L.Ed.2d 165. There the self-incrimination which made the Fifth Amendment privilege applicable was based on past conduct. The court said:

“The risks of incrimination which the petitioners take in registering are obvious. Form IS-52a requires an admission of membership in the Communist Party. Such an admission of membership may be used to prosecute the registrant under the membership clause of the Smith Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2385 (1964 ed.) or under § 4(a) of the Subversive Activities Control Act, 50 U.S.C. § 783(a) (1964 ed.), to mention only two federal criminal statutes. * * * It follows that the requirement to accomplish registration by completing and filing Form IS-52a is inconsistent with the protection of the Self-Incrimination Clause.

The court also concluded that Form IS-52 violated the Self-Incrimination Clause for the reason that the information called for in it “ * * * might be used as evidence in or at least supply investigatory leads to a criminal prosecution.” Registration by a Communist under either form would disclose past conduct subject to prosecution.

On the other hand, it is clear that the Kahringer and Lewis holdings as they relate to the Fifth Amendment are founded on a future conduct concept as distinguished from past conduct which is the basis for the privilege. A person may or may not gamble after registering, according to his own volition. It must be admitted that the language in Albertson directed to Form IS-52 does bear rather closely on the problem presented in requiring gamblers to register and pay the special tax.

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357 F.2d 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-el-stone-v-united-states-ca5-1966.