18 U.S.C. § 3691 — Jury trial of criminal contempts
submitted 78 years ago by ch. 645 to r/title-18-CRIMES-AND-CRIMINAL-PROCEDURE · 159 words · no verdicts yet
A person charged with criminal contempt for disobeying a court command may demand a jury trial when the same act or omission is also a criminal offense. The section lists exceptions for contempt near the court and in United States cases.
Whenever a contempt charged must consist in willful disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of any district court of the United States* by doing or omitting any act or thing in violation of it, and the act or thing done or omitted also constitutes a criminal offense under any Act of Congress, or under the laws of any state in which it was done or omitted, the accused, upon demand therefor, must be entitled to trial by a jury, which must conform as near as may be to the practice in other criminal cases. This section must not apply to contempts committed in the presence of the court, or so near to it as to obstruct the administration of justice, nor to contempts committed in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in the name of, or on behalf of, the United States.
Whenever a contempt charged shall consist in willful disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of any district court of the United States* by doing or omitting any act or thing in violation thereof, and the act or thing done or omitted also constitutes a criminal offense under any Act of Congress, or under the laws of any state in which it was done or omitted, the accused, upon demand therefor, shall be entitled to trial by a jury, which shall conform as near as may be to the practice in other criminal cases.
This section shall not apply to contempts committed in the presence of the court, or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice, nor to contempts committed in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in the name of, or on behalf of, the United States.
Source credit: (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 844.)
- 1948Enacted · Act of June 25, 1948, ch. 645 · 62 Stat. 844
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 645 on 1948-06-25.
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