United States v. Michael Lee Lowell

Michael Lee Lowell appeals from his conviction after a non-jury trial for refusing to submit to induction in violation of 50 U.S.C. App. § 462.

Lowell’s principal defense was that an employee in the office of his local selective service board gave him misinformation which caused him to refrain from making an application for conscientious objector status prior to the date on which he was to report for induction.

Such a defense to a criminal prosecution for refusing induction is recognized by this court in “very extreme cases” where there has been unconscionably misleading conduct by the local board. To establish such a defense, however, the defendant must show that his reliance on the misleading information was reasonable “in the sense that a person sincerely desirous of obeying the law would have accepted the information as true, and would not have been put on notice to make further inquiries.” United States v. Lansing, 424 F.2d 225, 227 (9th Cir. 1970); United States v. Wroblewski, 432 F.2d 422 (9th Cir. 1970).

From the time of his registration for the draft until April 3, 1969, when the induction order was issued, Lowell made no effort to assert a conscientious objector…