Donald Wheeldin v. United States

Defendant appeals his conviction for contempt of Congress. He was charged with wilfully failing to respond to a subpoena to appear at Los Angeles at a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee. See 60 Stat. 812 , 828-829, and 2 U.S.C.A. § 192 .

Generally, we affirm the conviction on the authority of Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109 , 79 S.Ct. 1081 , 3 L.Ed.2d 1115 .

One point which is made is that Wheel-din didn’t have the requisite wilfulness to sustain conviction. He thought he had the right to lay down conditions in advance on which he would appear before the Committee.

We are concerned here with the misdemeanor statute. In such a frame, we would hold evil intent is not necessary, and that a deliberate and conscious intent to disobey the subpoena is all that is needed. We find the holdings in Murdock v. United States, 290 U.S. 389 , 54 S.Ct. 223 , 78 L.Ed. 381 , and Bloch v. United States, 9 Cir., 221 F.2d 786 , and 223 F.2d 297 , are not controlling.

While it is not our function to review sentences, still we must record that the defendant was given a sentence of only thirty days and fined one hundred dollars. To us, the showing for an in forma…