For his operations as western Pennsylvania's top Communist Party leader, Steve Nelson, 53, was convicted in two courts. A Pennsylvania Court of Quarter Sessions gave him a stiff 20-year sentence and $10,000 fine for twelve violations of the 37-year-old state sedition act; then a Federal District Court added a milder five-year term for Smith Act violations. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out (6-3) Nelson's conviction by the state of Pennsylvania, ruled that the Federal Government alone may prosecute those who advocate its overthrow.
The ruling threw a large question mark...
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