Biography
David Davis was another of the Philadelphia Nine defendants in the 1950s Smith Act prosecution; legal records also identify him as David Dubensky. He was prosecuted as part of the same effort to criminalize Communist Party district leadership and its organizing work in the Philadelphia area during the McCarthy-era peak of anti-communist enforcement.
Davis was arrested and indicted in 1953 and convicted in 1954. In the 1957 appellate decision, the Third Circuit reversed his conviction and held that he (along with several co-defendants) was entitled to a new trial under the tightened legal framework that followed Supreme Court decisions limiting when political advocacy could be treated as criminal conspiracy. The practical effect of those rulings was to sharply undercut the government’s ability to keep the Philadelphia Nine imprisoned through Smith Act litigation.
