CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE - FEDERAL IMMUNITY STATUTE APPLICABLE TO STATE COURT

Authors

Raymond R. Trombadore S.Ed., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

ln response to a summons, petitioner appeared to testify before a congressional committee investigating crime, and confessed to having run a gambling business in Maryland. This confession was used in the criminal court of Baltimore to convict petitioner of conspiring to violate the state's anti-lottery laws. The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, which rejected petitioner's contention that use of the committee testimony was forbidden by a federal statute which provides that no testimony given by a witness in congressional inquiries "shall be used as evidence in any criminal proceeding against him in any court." On certiorari the United States Supreme Court held, reversed. The federal statute proscribing the incriminating use of testimony given by witnesses in congressional inquiries applies to state courts as well as to federal courts, without necessity of a claim by the witness of a constitutional privilege as to each question asked of him. Adams v. Maryland, 347 U.S. 179, 74 S.Ct. 442 (1954).

Recommended Citation

Raymond R. Trombadore S.Ed., CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE - FEDERAL IMMUNITY STATUTE APPLICABLE TO STATE COURT, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 1240 (1954).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol52/iss8/14