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18 § 2386

CRIMES

Part 1

(d) Any duly established diplomatic mission or consular office of a foreign government which is so recognized by the Department of State; or

(e) Any nationally recognized organization of persons who are veterans of the armed forces of the United States, or affiliates of such organizations.

(3) Every registration statement required to be filed by any organization shall contain the following information and documents:

(a) The name and post-office address of the organization in the United States, and the names and addresses of all branches, chapters, and affiliates of such organization;

(b) The name, address, and nationality of each officer, and of each person who performs the functions of an officer, of the organization, and of each branch, chapter, and affiliate of the organization;

(c) The qualifications for membership in the organization;

(d) The existing and proposed aims and purposes of the organization, and all the means by which these aims or purposes are being attained or are to be attained;

(e) The address or addresses of meeting places of the organization, and of each branch, chapter, or affiliate of the organization, and the times of meetings;

(f) The name and address of each person who has contributed any money, dues, property, or other thing of value to the organization or to any branch, chapter, or affiliate of the organization;

(g) A detailed statement of the assets of the organization, and of each branch, chapter, and affiliate of the organization, the manner in which such assets were acquired, and a detailed statement of the liabilities and income of the organization and of each branch, chapter, and affiliate of the organization;

(h) A detailed description of the activities of the organization, and of each chapter, branch, and affiliate of the organization;

(i) A description of the uniforms, badges, insignia, or other means of identification prescribed by the organization, and worn or carried by its officers or members, or any of such officers or members;

(j) A copy of each book, pamphlet, leaflet, or other publication or item of written, printed, or graphic matter issued or distributed directly or indirectly by the organization, or by any chapter, branch, or affiliate of the organization, or by any of the members of the organization under its authority or within

Ch. 115

TREASON, SEDITION, ETC.

18 § 2386

its knowledge, together with the name of its author or authors and the name and address of the publisher;

(k) A description of all firearms or other weapons owned by the organization, or by any chapter, branch, or affiliate of the organization, identified by the manufacturer's number thereon;

(1) In case the organization is subject to foreign control, the manner in which it is so subject;

(m) A copy of the charter, articles of association, constitution, bylaws, rules, regulations, agreements, resolutions, and all other instruments relating to the organization, powers, and purposes of the organization and to the powers of the officers of the organization and of each chapter, branch, and affiliate of the organization; and

(n) Such other information and documents pertinent to the purposes of this section as the Attorney General may from time to time require.

All statements filed under this section shall be public records and open to public examination and inspection at all reasonable hours under such rules and regulations as the Attorney General may prescribe.

(C) The Attorney General is authorized at any time to make, amend, and rescind such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out this section, including rules and regulations governing the statements required to be filed.

(D) Whoever violates any of the provisions of this section shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Whoever in a statement filed pursuant to this section willfully makes any false statement or willfully omits to state any fact which is required to be stated, or which is necessary to make the statements made not misleading, shall be fined not more than $2,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

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This is in response to your request for information on a former law governing appeals against sentences in England.

The attached report discusses the power of the appellate court, in the event of an appeal by a defendant against sentence, to increase the sentence of the trial court. For reasons indicated in the report, the law was changed in 1966.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Kensi B. Smok

Kersi B. Shroff

Legal Specialist

Enclosures

The Honorable

Peter Rodino

Chairman, House Judiciary Committee

House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

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Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Court of Criminal Appeal

[Chairman: The Rt. Hon. Lord Donovan]

Presented to Parliament by the Lord High Chancellor and the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of Her Majesty August 1965

Cmnd. 2755

LONDON

HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

SEVEN SHILLINGS NET

in Committee of the House of Commons (Official Report, Standing Committee A, 17th February 1948, columns 373–393).

194. Among the witnesses whom we heard opinion was fairly evenly divided on the question whether the Court should retain its power to increase sentences or whether the power should be abolished. Generally speaking, those witnesses in legal practice favoured abolition; those who were members of the judicial Bench favoured retention. The Lord Chief Justice considered that the power had some usefulness as a deterrent of unmeritorious appeals, but otherwise was largely ineffective since in cases where the Court had it in mind to increase a sentence it felt obliged to grant legal aid. In consequence counsel to whom the case was assigned often realised what was intended, and promptly advised his client to abandon his appeal, which was done. 195. The principal reasons for retaining the power seem to be these: (1) If a sentence has been passed which is manifestly inadequate, justice requires that it should be increased, as much as justice requires that a sentence which is manifestly excessive should be reduced. (2) The existence of the power serves to deter unmeritorious appeals. (3) The use of the power has some effect in removing disparity between sentences in comparable cases.

196. The first of these reasons is beyond controversy. But if the doing of justice is the principal reason for the power, then it would seem that the prosecution ought to be able to bring before the Court cases where, in its view, the sentence was so inadequate that justice had not been done. The idea that the prosecution should be able to appeal against the sentence passed at the trial, however, found very little favour indeed among those who assisted us in our enquiry, and finds none with us. It can be defended, of course, as being logical, but it would be a complete departure from our tradition that the prosecutor takes no part, or the minimum part, in the sentencing process. The question then is whether the existence of the power is warranted on the ground that the doing of justice in only a few cases is to be preferred to leaving those cases, however few, uncorrected. In theory one would suppose the answer must be "Yes". In practice, however, one must consider whether any stigma of unfairness attaches to the method of exercising the power which outweighs the fact that justice is done in, at any rate, a few cases per year. We have already stated that in 1963 there were six cases in which the power was exercised.

197. The Court would have had no power to increase the sentence even in these few cases had not the appellant himself invoked the Court's consideration of it. In response the Court granted his application for leave to appeal, and assigned to him the benefit of counsel, thus indicating to him in all probability that his plea for a reduction was regarded as having substance. The Court was privately of opinion, however, that the sentence ought to be increased, but was careful to let no hint of this view reach the appellant. In the end the increase of his punishment must have come to the prisoner as a very rude shock, and the granting of leave to appeal as nothing but the setting of a trap.

198. No criticism of the Court is intended, or would be justified, by this description of what in fact happens. If it is to do what Parliament said it 45

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