Monday, November 14, 2011

As the Gunwalker conspiracy cover-up continues to unravel, I increasingly hear a legal term being mentioned: Misprision of a Felony.

A misprision of a felony is the concealment of a felony without giving any degree of support to the felony.

To sustain a conviction of misprision of a felony, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt:

* that the principal had committed and completed the felony alleged;

* that the defendant had full knowledge of that fact;

* that the defendant failed to notify authorities; and

* that the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal the crime of the principal.

The elements of misprision of a felony, both of which must be proved to support conviction, are:

* concealment of something, such as suppression of evidence or some other positive act; and

* failure to disclose.

Failure to disclose, without active concealment, is not a felony. -- U.S. Legal.com.


There is a federal crime reporting statute, Title 18 U.S.C. § 4, which makes it a federal offense to fail to disclose a felony, if that failure is coupled with some act concealing the felony, such as suppression of evidence, harboring or protecting the person performing the felony, intimidation or harming a witness, or any other act designed to conceal from authorities the fact that a crime has been committed.

The statute reads as follows:

Title 18 U.S.C. § 4. Misprision of felony. Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.


Interestingly, a federal judge -- or any other government official -- is required as part of their mandatory administrative duties to receive any offer of information of a federal crime. If that judge or official blocks such report, that block is a felony under related obstruction of justice statutes, and constitutes a serious offense. Upon receiving such information, the judge or official is then required to make it known to a government law enforcement body that is not themselves involved in the federal crime.

Exactly what constitutes "active concealment" is the subject of much jurisprudence and often can be somewhat contradictory, dependent as much upon the facts of the case, the skill sets of the opposing attorneys, and the notoriousness of the case.

This should not give much comfort to Gunwalker conspirators and their silent abettors in the various agencies involved.

4 comments:

SWIFT said...

Misprison of Felony is rarely prosecuted. I once took a case against a Director of the VA at Erie, Pennsylvania to the Assistant U.S. Attorney. Rare is the time I have met such a gutless, officious POS! Even though my evidence clearly established a FELONY, the Assistant U.S. Attorney would not pursue it. I lost all respect for the judicial system and not a day goes by that my position is not reinforced!

Mt Top Patriot said...

Duh!
Misprision is a conspiracy by another name.
Conspiracy to commit falsehoods in order to hide a felony.

Misprision is an art form the traitors and crooks of the federal government have honed to a fine fine edge. Misprision is rife amongst the ruling class, it is their standard operating procedure. The entire rotten edifice is one big fat nasty diseased corrupted Misprision.

Question is, what is going to be the straw that breaks the camels back and brings it tumbling down?
There are so many crisis' of legitimacy, so much corruption, vast treason and tyranny, insidious usurpation, one has to wonder what is holding it all together.

Don't have a crystal ball, I'm just an everyday working Joe.
Looks to me though, the federal government as it is constituted today in all its utter corruption of every principle and moral along with the disregard of the rule of law, it is fast reaching the point of un-sustainability.
There are so many cockroaches and crooks eating away at its foundation,
What event will precede the collapse of it all?

Is it Gunwalker?
Is Gunwalker the push that brings down an entire government?
Something gonna give here sooner than later.
Tell you one thing, the natives are getting restless.
You can only screw millions so many times before they decide it is time to get rid of the problem.

Anonymous said...

The government isn't interested in justice unless it can be used to political or financial advantage. That means that your government is corrupt (there are Marxists helping out too) because they can shield the "right" person/s from prosecution and bring the full weight of government against the "wrong" person/s.

GUESS where you fit in.

They can run their mouths all they want but they are liars all. This is as they wish it to be and they have no intention of ever changing it because it benefits them and the law and founders be damned.

Anonymous said...

Hm. If an honest U.S. Attorney (BWA HA HA HA HA! Just kidding!) were to actually act on this re the FBI informant who probably murdered Brian Terry, then the fine upstanding folks at the FBI might have reason to worry. I bet the creatures at the FBI are not worried at all.