Silber v. United States
Decision Date | 30 June 1961 |
Docket Number | No. 15779.,15779. |
Citation | 296 F.2d 588 |
Parties | Bernard SILBER, Appellant v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Mr. Victor Rabinowitz, New York City, of the bar of the Court of Appeals of New York, pro hac vice, by special leave of court, with whom Mr. David Rein, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellant.
Mr. William Hitz, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Messrs. Oliver Gasch, U. S. Atty., at the time of argument, Carl W. Belcher, Asst. U. S. Atty., at the time of argument, and Miss Doris Spangenburg, Asst. U. S. Atty., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before Mr. Justice REED, retired,* BAZELON and BASTIAN, Circuit Judges.
This case is a companion to Grumman v. United States, 110 U.S.App.D.C. —, 294 F.2d 708. Appellant, like Grumman, was called to testify before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities during a series of hearings on communist infiltration into the communications industry.
Appellant was called on August 2, 1957. At the commencement of proceedings on that day, and in the presence of appellant, the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Clyde Doyle, made the following statement:
In response to questioning by a staff member of the committee, appellant testified that he had been a member of the Communist Party some years previously, and that in his work for Western Union Telegraph he handled Government coded messages. He refused to name the person who had recruited him into the Party and refused to state whether he knew any communists presently in the industry. The exact questions forming the basis of the indictment are as follows:
When appellant declined to answer these questions,1 referring to the statement of objections filed by Grumman, the pertinency of the questions was explained to him as follows:
The pertinency of the specific questions forming Counts Three and Four of the indictment was explained to appellant by Mr. Gordon H. Scherer, a committee member, as follows:
At the trial in the District Court, Count Two of the indictment was dismissed on motion of appellant. He was convicted on the remaining three counts and was duly sentenced. This appeal followed.
Richard Arens, the committee counsel, testified at the trial that appellant was called to testify before the committee on the following basis: (1) his name appeared on a list given the committee by Western Union Telegraph of its employees who, in their work, had access to Government coded messages; (2) the committee files listed appellant as a member of the American Communications Association as stated in Grumman, testimony before the committee had identified certain officers of that Association as communists; and (3) a New York Times article published...
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USA. v. Promise
...Silber's trial unquestionably established both his guilt and that he had notice of the unindicted information, see Silber v. United States, 296 F.2d 588, 590 (D.C. Cir. 1961), the Supreme Court, without any consideration of that evidence or the notice, corrected the plain indictment error a......
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United States v. Grumman
...(based upon the earlier, defective indictments) of Grumman, 111 U.S.App.D.C. 79, 294 F.2d 708 (1961), and of Silber, 111 U.S.App.D.C. 331, 296 F.2d 588 (1961).1 Because of a case decided by the Supreme Court on June 17, 1963, Yellin v. United States, 374 U.S. 109, 83 S.Ct. 1828, 10 L.Ed.2d ......