U.S. SMITH ACT CONVICTIONS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 17

U.S. SMITH ACT CONVICTIONS

More Reversals By Court (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, January 20. The United States Court of Appeals, acting in line with the Supreme Court’s' California Communists ruling last June, today reversed the convictions of seven persons in Hawaii and four in the State of Washington. The Supreme Court in June reversed the convictions of five California Communists convicted under the Smith Act on charges of conspiring to overthrow the Government by violence. The court ruled that advocacy to overthrow the Government must be such as to incite action. The Hawaiian and Washington convictions were obtained in district courts on memberships in the Communist Party and plotting to teach and advocate violent overthrow of the Federal Government. Judge Richard Chambers, who wrote the Appeals Court decision today, said that the Supreme Court's decision last June “leaves the Smith Act, as to any further prosecution under it, a virtual shambles.” Those ordered to be freed by the decision today were: In Hawaii: Jack Hall, regional director of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union; Charles Fujimoto, former chairman of the Communist Party in Hawaii, and his wife, Eileen, who was a member of the party's executive board; John Reinecke, former territorial treasurer of the party; Dwight Freeman, who was party organiser; Koji Ariyoshi, editor of the Honolulu “Record;” and Jack Kimoto, who was party chairman before World War H: In Seattle, Washington were: Henry Huff, John Daschmach, Paul Bowen and Terry Pettus.