United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Palermo v. United States, 360 U.S. 343 (1959)

Palermo v. United States

No. 471

Argued April 28, 1959

Decided June 22, 1959

360 U.S. 343

Syllabus

During the trial in a Federal District Court at which petitioner was convicted of knowingly and willfully evading the payment of income taxes for the years 1950, 1951, and 1952, an important issue was whether his handwritten record of dividends received in 1951 and 1952 had been given to an accounting firm while it was preparing his returns for those years, rather than in 1953, after revenue agents had begun investigating his returns. To impeach the testimony of a partner in the accounting firm that they had not received this record until 1953, petitioner called for and obtained the production of certain documents in the possession of the Government, but he was denied production of a 600-word memorandum summarizing parts of a 3 1/2-hour interrogation of the witness by a government agent.

Held: such memorandum was not a "statement" of the kind required to be produced under the so-called Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500; its production was properly denied; and the conviction is sustained. Pp. 360 U. S. 343-356.

258 F.2d 397 affirmed.