United States v. Donald Jennings and Charles Blasco

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-appellants Charles Blasco and Donald Jennings were convicted of misprision of a felony in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 4. Although on appeal defendants offer a number of reasons why their convictions should be overturned, we treat only one issue: whether the federal misprision statute, 18 U.S.C. § 4, as applied in this case, violates defendants’ Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. We conclude that it does and, accordingly, we reverse.

I

Defendants, both Chicago police officers, were charged in an eight-count indictment with engaging in a pattern…