Define the elements of treason and analyze treason’s evidentiary requirements and grading

Define the elements of treason and analyze treason’s evidentiary requirements and grading. Define the elements of sedition and analyze sedition grading..

Treason
Article III § 3 of the US Constitution defines treason and specifies the evidentiary requirements for any treason
trial. The founding fathers wanted to ensure that the government would not charge an individual with treason
without significant and reliable proof. Treason was punishable by death in England, so it was a constant threat to
anyone who disagreed with the ruling party. Although the treason clause in the Constitution is modeled after the
early English law defining treason, it omits a section that criminalized “imagining the death of the King” and also
limits Congress’s authority to extend or expand the crime of treason or to lighten the evidentiary requirements.
The pertinent section of the Constitution states, “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying
War against them, or, in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted
of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”
Treason Elements and Grading
The criminal act element required for treason is levying war against the United States or adhering to the enemy
by giving aid and comfort (18 U.S.C. § 2381, 2011). Prosecutions for treason are practically nonexistent, so
case law in this area is dated, yet still constitutes viable precedent. In U.S. v. Burr, 25 F Cas 55 (1807), a case
involving then-vice president Aaron Burr’s prosecution for treason, the US Supreme Court held that levying war
means an actual assembling of men, not a conspiracy to levy war, nor a mere enlistment of men. In Haupt v.
U.S., 330 U.S. 631 (1947), the US Supreme Court held that the defendant’s acts of harboring and sheltering his
son in his home, helping him to purchase an automobile, and obtain employment constituted providing aid and
comfort to the enemy because the defendant’s son was a spy and saboteur. The criminal intent element required
for treason is most likely the general intent or knowingly to commit an act of levying war or the specific intent
or purposely to betray the United States by giving aid and comfort to enemies (Cramer v. U.S., 1945). The
Constitution specifies the evidentiary requirements that two witnesses testify to an overt act of treason or that the
defendant confess in open court, although this is not set forth in the federal treason statute (18 U.S.C., 2011).
As stated in Cramer v. U.S., 325 U.S. 1, 34, 35 (1945), “Every act, movement, deed, and word of the defendant
charged to constitute treason must be supported by the testimony of two witnesses,” and it is not enough that the
elements of treason can be inferred from the witness statements. Treason is graded as a felony that can merit the
death penalty or prohibit the defendant from ever holding federal office (18 U.S.C. § 2381, 2011).

Sedition criminalizes the incitement of insurrection or revolution by seditious speech or writings and, as such,
is subject to the restrictions set forth in the First Amendment. The first federal law prohibiting sedition was the
13.1 Crimes Involving National Security 472
Sedition Act enacted in 1798 and repealed by Thomas Jefferson after his election as president. The current federal
statute criminalizing sedition was originally enacted in 1940 and is codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2385. Conspiracy to
commit sedition is codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2384. Many states have similar provisions (51 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. §
6018, 2011). Like treason, sedition is rarely prosecuted.
The criminal act element required for sedition is either advocating, aiding, teaching, organizing or printing,
publishing, or circulating written matter that advocates, aids, or teaches the overthrow of the US government or
any state, district, or territory thereof by force or violence (18 U.S.C. § 2385, 2011). The criminal intent element
required for sedition is the general intent or knowingly to advocate, aid, teach, or organize, or the specific intent
or purposely to print, publish, or circulate written matter that advocates, aids, or teaches the violent government
overthrow. In Yates v. U.S., 354 U.S. 298 (1957), the US Supreme Court held that only advocacy directed at
promoting unlawful action could be constitutionally prohibited. Advocacy of an “abstract doctrine” was protected
by the First Amendment as free speech (Yates v. U.S., 2011). Sedition is graded as a felony that can prohibit the
defendant from obtaining employment with the US government for a minimum of five years postconviction (18
U.S.C. § 2385, 2011).