Fletcher v. United States, 10295.
| Decision Date | 09 July 1942 |
| Docket Number | No. 10295.,10295. |
| Citation | 129 F.2d 262 |
| Parties | FLETCHER v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
S. W. Plauche, Jr., of Lake Charles, La., for appellant.
Malcolm E. Lafargue, U. S. Atty., and John A. Patin, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Shreveport, La., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON and HOLMES, Circuit Judges and STRUM, District Judge.
The only question for decision in this case is whether an accused, in a criminal prosecution for knowingly failing to report for induction into the armed forces in violation of Section 11 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940,1 may introduce evidence to show that the local draft board did not accord him a fair hearing on the question of his classification under the Act.
The question arises in this way: Dennis Horton Fletcher, a registrant under the Act, claimed deferment from military service in his questionnaire and in person before the local board, on the ground that he was a minister in the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The local board, upon consideration of the evidence before it, declined to give him the deferred classification sought, and placed him in group 1-A. Fletcher appealed to the board of appeals and to the national director, but in each instance the action of the local board was affirmed. Thereafter he was directed by his local board to report for induction on December 5, 1941, on which date he appeared and announced that he would not submit to induction. Thereupon Fletcher was indicted, and, in the course of his trial below, attempted to introduce evidence that he had not been given a fair and impartial hearing by the local draft board, to which evidence an objection was sustained.
Section 11 of the Act provides that any person charged with the duty of carrying out any of the provisions thereof who in any manner shall knowingly fail or neglect to perform any duty required of him under or in execution of the Act shall, upon conviction, be punished as therein provided. Appellant admits that he knowingly failed and neglected to perform a duty required of him under the Act, but asserts that such duty was improperly required of him, and that by reason thereof no penalty should attach to him for his failure of performance.
Under Section 10 of the Act, 50 U. S.C.A.Appendix § 310, the local draft boards are given power within their respective jurisdictions to hear and determine, subject to the right of appeal to the appeal boards, all questions or...
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