more offenses.47 A charge in a single count of a conspiracy to violate two or more of the laws of the United States does not make an indictment duplicitous.48 An indictment may charge a conspiracy between defendant and others unknown to the grand jury.49 In such a case the names of the others need not be proved, when it is clear that in committing the overt acts of which evidence is given, the defendants must have been aided by others.50 § 506d. Indictments for conspiracy under the civil rights laws. By the Criminal Code which substantially re-enacts the Revised Statutes in this respect: "§ 19. If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same, or if two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured, they shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars and imprisoned not more than ten years, and shall, moreover, be thereafter ineligible to any office, or place of honor, profit, or trust created by the Constitution or laws of the United States."1 "§ 20. Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects, or causes to be subjected, any inhabitant of any State, Territory, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such inhabitant being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both."2 "§ 21. If two or more persons in any State, Territory, or District conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person 47 Frohwerk v. U. S., 249 U. S. 204, 39 Sup. Ct. 249, 63 L. ed. 561; U. S. v. Ault, 263 Fed. 803. 48 Knauer v. U. S., C. C. A., 237 Fed. 8. 49 Nee v. U. S., C. C. A., 267 Fed. 84. See supra, § 506. 50 Ibid. § 506d. 1 Act of March 4, 1909, ch. 321, 35 St. at L. 1092, Comp. St., § 10183, re-enacting U. S. R. S., § 5508. 2 Ibid., Comp. St., § 10184, reenacting U. S. R. S., § 5510. or from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof; to induce by like means any officer of the United States to leave any State, Territory, District, or place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, hinder, each of such persons shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than six years, or both." 8 By the Revised Statutes which re-enact in this respect the Enforcement Act of May 30, 1870: "First. If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof; or to induce by like. means any officer of the United States to leave any State, district, or place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties. "Second. If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire to deter, by force, intimidation, or threat, any party or witness in any court of the United States from attending such court, or from testifying to any matter pending therein, freely, fully, and truthfully, or to injure such party or witness in his person or property on account of his having so attended or testified, or to influence the verdict, presentment, or indictment of any grand or petit juror in any such court, or to injure such juror in his person or property on account of any verdict, presentment, or indictment lawfully assented to by him, or of his being or having been such juror; or if two or more persons conspire for the purpose of impeding, hindering, obstructing, or defeating, in any manner, the due course of 3 Ibid., Comp. St., § 10185, reenacting U. S. R. S., § 5518. 416 St. at L. 140. justice in any State or Territory, with intent to deny to any citizen the equal protection of the laws, or to injure him or his property for lawfully enforcing, or attempting to enforce, the right of any person, or class of persons, to the equal protection of the laws. "Third. If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire, or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws; or for the purpose of preventing or hindering the constituted authorities of any State or Territory from giving or securing to all persons within such State or Territory the equal protection of the laws; or if two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice-President, or as a member of Congress of the United State; or to injure any citizen in person or property on account of such support or advocacy; in any case of conspiracy set forth in this section, if one or more persons engaged therein do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby another is injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages, occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators." 5 The right of a qualified voter to take part in an election of a member of Congress or of a United States Senator is a right secured to him by the Constitution and laws of the United States. A conspiracy to deprive him of such a right is a crime.7 5 U. S. R. S., § 1980, Comp. St., § 3933. 6 Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 4 Sup. Ct. 152, 28 L. ed. 274; Re Coy, 127 U. S. 731, 8 Sup. Ct. 1263, 32 L. ed. 274; Wiley v. Sinkler, 179 U. S. 58, 21 Sup. Ct. 17, 45 L. ed. 84; Swafford v. Templeton, 185 U. S. 487, 22 Sup. Ct. 783, 46 L. ed. 1005; James v. Bowman, 190 U. S. 127, 23 Sup. Ct. 678, 47 L. ed. 979; U. S. v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383, 35 Sup. Ct. 904, 59 L. ed. 1355; Felix v. U. S., C. C. A., 186 Fed. 685; U. S. v. Stone, 188 Fed. 836; Aczel v. II. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652. 7 Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. The overt act may be an assault upon a voter, or the intimidation of voters by threats, or by the use of fire arms 10 or otherwise; 11 by the intimidation of citizens to prevent their acting as election officers, 12 the arrest and imprisonment of such citizens for no offense without process of law; 13 or the preparation of the ballots in such a way as to make it difficult or impossible for illiterate voters to exercise the right of suffrage; by causing men to vote in the names of voters who had been intimidate; 15 by the omission of the returns of certain precincts from the returns to the State Election Board; 16 by the fraudulent manipulation of voting machines.17 14 These sections are not designed to protect exclusively those who are oppressed because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.18 An indictment is not defective because it fails to charge that the persons against whom the conspiracy was directed were negroes.19 When such an indictment charges a conspiracy to deprive negroes of their right to vote, it need not allege the names of the voters whom the defendants intended to injure.20 A count in an indictment charging a conspiracy to injure and oppress specified electors in the free exercise of their right to vote at such an election is not defective because of an omission of an averment that these were registered, as was required by the 651, 4 Sup. Ct. 152, 28 L. ed. 274; U. S. v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383, 35 Sup. Ct. 904, 59 L. ed. 1355; Felix v. U. S., C. C. A., 186 Fed. 685; U. S. v. Stone, 188 Fed. 836; Aczel v. U. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652 (including the right to vote for a United States Senator). 8 Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 4 Sup. Ct. 152, 28 L. ed. 274; Felix v. U. S., C. C. A.,.186 Fed. 685. 9 Aczel v. U. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652. 10 Felix v. U. S., C. C. A., 186 Fed. 685; Aczel v. U. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652. 11 Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 4 Sup. Ct. 152, 28 L. ed. 274. 12 Aczel v. U. S.. C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652. 13 Ibid. 14 U. S. v. Stone, 188 Fed. 836. 15 Aczel v. U. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652. 16 U. S. v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383, 35 Sup. Ct. 904, 59 L. ed. 1355. 17 Aczel v. U. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652, affirming 219 Fed. 917. Contra, U. S. v. Gradwell, 234 Fed. 446. 18 U. S. v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383, 35 Sup. Ct. 904, 59 L. ed. 1355; Felix v. U. S., C. C. A., 186 Fed. 685. 19 U. S. v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383, 35 Sup. Ct. 904, 59 L. ed. 1355. 20 U. S. v. Stone, 188 Fed. 836. State law in order to entitle them to vote, when it states that they were "qualified voters and entitled to vote at said election"; 21 because it further charges that a further object of the conspiracy was to injure and oppress certain citizens in the exercise of their rights to act as election officers and to be free from arrest without due process of law.22 An averment was held to be insufficient which stated that defendants intended to threaten to use their efforts to cause sentence on a criminal charge then pending against him for judgment to be pronounced upon a voter whom they were charged with conspiring to intimidate; since it was said to be argumentative, not to charge a direct threat to have the sentence pronounced and that whether the threat would naturally raise in the voter's mind any further apprehension of the sentence was too conjectural.23 It was further held that a count was bad which charged a conspiracy to threaten a voter with reference to the consequences of his vote for representative in Congress by telling him that he had better look out and that defendants had got something on him.24 Where the gravamen of the charge was the preparation of ballots so as to deprive illiterate negro voters of their right of suffrage, a count was sufficient which, after charging the conspiracy in the language of the statute with due specification of the time and place of the Congressional election, and setting forth a copy of the objectionable ballot, averred that the form of the ballot was devised by two of the defendants, naming them, with intent and purpose, on account of the race and color of a large number of persons of the negro race and black color, citizens of the United States, and the State and county where the Congressional election was held, duly qualified and registered voters in said county, a large number of whom could neither read nor write and were illiterate, it being impossible for many of the duly qualified and registered negroes voters of such county, and difficult for any of them to vote at said Congressional election for the candidate of their choice; the said two defendants well knowing that said duly qualified and registered negroes voters would in all probability vote for 21 Aczel v. U. S., C. C. A., 232 Fed. 652. 23 U. S. v. Welch, 243 Fed. 996. 22 Ibid. |