[Download] "United States v. Klinger" by United States Court Of Appeals Second Circuit ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: United States v. Klinger
- Author : United States Court Of Appeals Second Circuit
- Release Date : January 03, 1952
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 57 KB
Description
The only point which we find it necessary to decide upon these appeals is whether the prosecution was barred by the Statute of Limitation. The convictions were under an indictment found on March 31, 1950, which charged the defendants with conspiracy to "defraud the United States"; that is, by "impairing, obstructing, or defeating the lawful function of any department of Government"; in this instance the rationing of sugar through the Office of Price Administration. It is not necessary to set out the evidence beyond saying that the prosecution did not prove that the conspiracy lasted beyond December 31, 1946; and that the result depends upon whether the three years period of limitation, which concededly applied to the crime, began to run on January 1, 1947, or on January 1, 1950. The answer to that turns upon the following clause in the Act of 1944: "The running of any existing statute of limitations * * * shall be suspended until three years after the termination of hostilities in the present war as proclaimed by the President". That act was an amendment of the first section of the Act of August 24, 1942; and in 1948, when the Criminal Code as a whole was amended, that Act was itself put into general terms, as follows: "When the United States is at war the running of any statute of limitations * * * is * * * suspended" etc.; and in that form it now appears as § 3287 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which went into effect on September 1, 1948. If § 3287 had enlarged the period of limitation beyond the extension granted in 1944, it would govern this appeal, because the period fixed by the Act of 1944 had not expired in 1948; but the prosecution does not suggest that it did, and we shall confine our discussion to the Act of 1944.