Fiswick v. United States

• Citation: 91 L.Ed. 196,329 U.S. 211,67 S.Ct. 224
• Decision Date: 09 December 1946
• Docket Number: No. 51,51
• Parties: FISWICK et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: United States Supreme Court

329 U.S. 211

67 S.Ct. 224

91 L.Ed. 196

FISWICK et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 51.

Dec. 9, 1946.

Argued Nov. 19, 20, 1946.

[Syllabus from pages 211-213 intentionally omitted] Frederick M. P. Pearse, of Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Leon Ulman, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Alien Registration Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 670, 8 U.S.C. § 451 et seq., 8 U.S.C.A. § 451 et seq., required aliens, with certain exceptions, to register pursuant to regulations of the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. ¹ Among the disclosures required was whether during the preceding five years th alien had been 'affiliated with or active in (a member of, official of, a worker for) organizations, devoted in whole or in part to influencing or furthering the political activities, public relations, or public policy of a foreign government.'²

Petitioners are German nationals who registered under the Act, the last of the three, Mayer, registering on December 23, 1940. Each stated when he registered that he was not affiliated with or active in such an organization. Each failed to disclose in answer to another question pertaining to 'memberships or activities in clubs, organizations, or societies' that he was in any way connected with the Nazi party. They were indicted in 1944 with 28 others for conspiring to defraud the United States in the exercise of its governmental functions (see Curley v. United States, 1 Cir., 130 F. 1, 4) in violation of § 37 of the Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C. § 88, 18 U.S.C.A. § 88.

The indictment charges that petitioners continuously between September 1, 1939, and the date the indictment was returned, September 13, 1944, conspired with each other and with Draeger, the German consul in New York City and leader of the Nazi party in this country, with Draeger's secretary, Vogel, and with other representatives of the Third Reich, to defraud the United States by concealing and misrepresenting their membership in the Nazi party. It charges that since 1933 the Nazi party was devoted to furthering the political activities and policy of the German Reich in this country, that each petitioner during the five years prior to his registration was a member of that party, that Draeger and Vogel directed petitioners in registering under the Act to conceal and falsify their connection with the Nazi party, that petitioners followed such directions, that after their registration they continued from day to day to misrepresent to the government their connection with and activities in the Nazi party. The indictment alleges that as a means of accomplishing the conspiracy the petitioners appeared for registration and in registering falsely failed to disclose their connection with and activities in the Nazi party. The indictment sets forth 40 overt acts. Many related to instructions given by Draeger and Vogel to various defendants from September to December 1940, in connection with their registration. Others related to the registering by petitioners in November and December, 1940. The last over act alleged to have been committed by any of petitioners was the filing by Mayer of his registration statement on December 23, 1940.

Of the 31 indicted, only the three petitioners were convicted after a jury trial.³ Fiswick and Rudolph were sen- tenced to imprisonment for 18 months each. Mayer was sentenced to imprisonment for a year and a day. The judgments of conviction were affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, one judge dissenting. 3 Cir., 153 F.2d 176. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted because the rulings of the lower courts on the continuing nature of the conspiracy were apparently in conflict with decisions of this Court. See United States v. Irvine, 98 U.S. 450, 25 L.Ed. 193; United States v. Kissel, 218 U.S. 601, 31 S.Ct. 124, 54 L.Ed. 1168.

First. The nature and duration of the conspiracy assumed great importance at the trial for the following reason. Each petitioner after he was apprehended made damaging statements to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mayer, in November, 1943, stated that he had applied for membership in the Nazi party and had not disclosed the fact because Vogel told him not to. Fiswick's statement made in April, 1944, was to the same effect. Rudolph made substantially the same admissions in November, 1943 and then in September, 1944, retracted them insofar as he had said that in registering under the Act and in failing to disclose his Nazi party affiliation he had followed instructions. His later reason for non-disclosure was his asserted desire to protect his family. Each of these statements was admitted at the trial. At first, each was admitted only as against the maker. At the close of the government's case, however, the District Court ruled that each of these statements was admissible against each of the other coconspirators. It so charged the jury. Later the jury returned to the courtroom for further instructions. One of the questions on which the foreman stated that they desired instruction related to that part of the charge 'where you said something about all of the defendants were bound by the act of one or something, something as a group, and the other said the individuals.' The judge then repeated that the admissions of each were admissible against all provided there was a conspiracy and they were all in it.

The Solicitor General now rightly concedes that that ruling was erroneous. Though the result of a conspiracy may be continuing, the conspiracy does not thereby become a continuing one. See United States v. Irvine, supra. Continuity of action to produce the unlawful result, or as stated in United States v. Kissel, supra, page 607 of 218 U.S., at page 126 of 31 S.Ct., 54 L.Ed. 1168, 'continuous co-operation of the conspirators to keep it up' is necessary. A conspiracy is a partnership in crime. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U.S. 150, 253, 60 S.Ct. 811, 858, 84 L.Ed. 1129. Under § 37 of the Criminal Code, the basis of the present indictment, an overt act is necessary to complete the offense.⁴ The statute of limitations, unless suspended,⁵ runs from the last overt act during the existence of the conspiracy. Brown v. Elliott, 225 U.S. 392, 401, 32 S.Ct. 812, 815, 56 L.Ed. 1136. The overt acts averred and proved may thus mark the duration, as well as the scope, of the conspiracy.

In this case the last overt act, as we have noted, was the filing by Mayer of his registration statement on December 23, 1940. That act was adequate as an overt act in furtherance of a conspiracy to make a false return. But there is difficulty in also making it serve the function of an overt act in furtherance of a conspiracy to conceal from 1940 to 1944 the fact that false returns had been made. All continuity of action ended with the last overt act in December, 1940. There was no overt act of concealment which followed the act of making false statements. If the latter is permitting to do double duty, then a continuing result becomes a continuing conspiracy. If, as we think, the conspiracy charged and proved did not extend beyond the date of the last overt act, the admissions of each petitioner were improperly employed against the others. While the act of one partner in crime is admissible against the others where it is in furtherance of the criminal undertaking, Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 66 S.Ct. 1180, and ca es cited, all such responsibility is at an end when the conspiracy ends. Logan v. United States, 144 U.S. 263, 309, 12 S.Ct. 617, 632, 36 L.Ed. 429; Brown v. United States, 150 U.S. 93, 98, 14 S.Ct. 37, 39, 37 L.Ed. 1010. Moreover, confession or admission by one coconspirator after he has been apprehended is not in any sense a furtherance of the criminal enterprise. It is rather a frustration of it. If, as the Circuit Court of Appeals thought, the maintenance of the plot to deceive the government was the objective of this conspiracy, the admissions made to the officers ended it. So far as each conspirator who confessed was concerned, the plot was then terminated. He thereupon ceased to act in the role of a conspirator. His admissions were therefore not admissible against his erstwhile fellow-conspirators. Gambino v. United States, 3 Cir., 108 F.2d 140, 142, 143.

It is earnestly argued, however, that the error was harmless. The 'harmless error' statute, Judicial Code, § 269, 28 U.S.C. § 391, 28 U.S.C.A. § 391, provides that 'On the hearing of any appeal, certiorari, * * * or motion for a new trial, in any case, civil or criminal, the court shall give judgment after an examination of the entire record before the court, without regard to technical errors, defects, or exceptions which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.' We have recently reviewed the history of this statute and the func- tion it was designed to serve in criminal cases. Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239. The Court there stated, page 1248 of 66 S.Ct.: 'If, when all is said and done, the conviction is sure that the error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand, except perhaps where the departure is from a constitutional norm or a specific command of Congress. * * * But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected. The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand.'

We cannot say with fair assurance in this case that the jury was not substantially swayed by the use of these...