Does anyone know when was the last successful case of treason?

[Hawkeye-X]

Inquiring minds wants to know.

Hawkeye-X

[calico1]

1. Was it that father-son-uncle spy ring?

Back in the early 90's I believe.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. No they did not convict them of treason technically

too hard to prove

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. the rosenbergs

Thos are the two last people to get convicted on the statue

Everybody else has been convicted on a myrial of other things... why treason is extremely hard to prove, thank King Goerge (the oroginal one) for that one. He loved to charge people for treason almost for jay walking

[ozymandius]

5. The Rosenbergs were prosecuted for espionage.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/rosen/rosenmain.htm

[BOSSHOG]

4. The Rosenbergs?

The first names that came to mind but I don't know if they were the last ones to be so tried.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArosenberg.htm

[Walt Starr]

8. The Rosenbergs were charged with Espionage, not treason. n/t

[Walt Starr]

6. Iva Toguri D'Aquino

She was convicted of treason after World War II, mostly on fabricated evidence.

[ozymandius]

14. what a horrible story

The ending offers some consolation:

Iva Toguri D'Aquino stood trial for eight "overt acts" of treason at the Federal District Court in San Francisco in July 1949. Neither Toguri nor any of the other women called herself Tokyo Rose: the name was invented by GIs and applied by them to any female Japanese announcer. During what was at the time the costliest trial in U.S. history (over half a million dollars), the prosecution presented forty-six witnesses, including two of Toguri's former supervisors at Radio Tokyo (both of whom later admitted to having committed perjury) and a few soldiers who could not distinguish between what they had heard on radio broadcasts and what they had heard by way of rumour.

-cut-

Her former supervisors at Radio Tokyo under government pressure gave perjured or otherwise distorted testimony that was instrumental in her conviction. Count VI (the only count on which she was convicted) claimed, "That on a day during October, 1944, the exact date being to the Grand Jurors unknown, said defendant, at Tokyo, Japan, in a broadcasting studio of The Broadcasting Corporation of Japan, did speak into a microphone concerning the loss of ships.

-cut-

Toguri was fined US$10,000 and given a 10 year prison sentence, of which she served more than six years. D'Aquino appealed her case to the public on the television program 60 Minutes, and was pardoned by outgoing President Gerald Ford on January 19, 1977.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D'Aquino

[ozymandius]

7. two cases here

Thomas Wilson Dorr and John Brown

[flowomo]

9. here's a little historical summary of treason cases in the US:

In the history of the United States there have been fewer than forty federal prosecutions for treason and even fewer convictions. Several men were convicted of treason in connection with the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion but were pardoned by George Washington. The most famous treason trial, that of Aaron Burr in 1807, resulted in acquittal. Politically motivated attempts to convict opponents of the Jeffersonian Embargo Acts and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 all failed. Significantly, after the American Civil War, no person involved with the Confederate States of America was charged with treason, and only one major Confederate official, the commandant of the Andersonville prison, who was charged with war crimes, was charged with anything at all.

Several people generally thought of as traitors in the United States, such as the Walker Family, or Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were not prosecuted for treason per se, but rather for espionage.

Treason has become largely a wartime phenomenon in the 20th century, and the treason cases of World Wars One and Two were of minor significance. Most states have provisions in their constitutions or statutes similar to those in the U.S. Constitution. There have been only two successful prosecutions for treason on the state level, that of Thomas Dorr in Rhode Island and that of John Brown in Virginia.

http://www.answers.com/topic/treason

[berni_mccoy]

10. Here is Wiki's definition and history of U.S. treason

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason#United_States

Thomas Dorr and John Brown were the last prosecuted for Treason (1800's).

Other people have been considered traitors but have been prosecuted for espionage (which, during war-time is an equivalent crime but easier to prove).

[Walt Starr]

11. Iva Toguri D'Aquino was tried and convicted of treason in 1946

She was alleged to be "Tokyo Rose".

[flowomo]

13. she's still alive apparently....

Her trial was considered the most expensive in American history at that time. The U.S. government stacked the deck against Toguri and her meager defense, and the judge later admitted he was prejudiced against her from the start. Toguri was found guilty of only one of the eight treason charges -- "That she did speak into a microphone concerning the loss of ships." She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000. Because she was a model prisoner, Toguri was released early in 1956, although she was served with a deportation order which took two years to fight.

In 1976, the TV news show 60 Minutes told the Tokyo Rose story from Toguri's point of view. This led to a full pardon for Toguri from President Gerald Ford in 1977.

Unfortunately, Toguri's husband was never able to join her in the U.S. They reluctantly divorced in 1980, and d'Aquino died in 1996. Iva Toguri currently lives in Chicago where she runs her family's import business.

http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020221.html

[Walt Starr]

16. Yeah, I haven't been able to find anybody since

Even Christopher Boyce and Daulton Lee were only charged adn convited of espionage.

[TomClash]

12. None

They usually cut deals to determine the scope of the damage.

[Burning Water]

15. This ain't

gonna be it.

I know no more than anybody else, but treason is not even in the works, nor will it be. Likely scenario: perjury or obstruction of justice. Best case, indictment for outing Valerie Plame. But treason is not in the cards on this one. It is defined constitutionally, and not by prosecutors.

[Walt Starr]

17. Espionage is a pretty good possibility, too. n/t

[Burning Water]

18. Probably not.

What foreign country were they working for??

I'm afraid we are all going to be disappointed at the results. One or two indictments for perjury or something like that is all we can realistically hope for. Still, even that will harm the evil Bushco regime, and that's the important thing.

[Walt Starr]

19. Read the Espionage act

Seriously, read it.

[Burning Water]

22. Well,

we'll know soon enough.

[B Calm]

20. Republicans are making light of this, but it is

an intentional effort to expose an undercover CIA agent, working on weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East during a time of war.. This is TREASON during a time of War and can not be made out to be nothing big!

[BrotherBuzz]

21. And they are making light of damage they can't even know of

The only source that can validate the extent of the damage is the CIA, the same outfit the republicans insists on bashing as well. Interesting, no?