Biography
John S. Daschbach was a Washington State civil-liberties and Communist Party organizer arrested in the Seattle Smith Act prosecution on September 17, 1952. A jury convicted him on October 9, 1953, and the court imposed five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He spent post-verdict time in custody before obtaining appeal bail. His Smith Act conviction was vacated after the Supreme Court’s Yates decision. The trial court also imposed a consecutive three-year contempt sentence for his refusal to identify other party members; that judgment was later reversed.
National Guardian, October 19, 1953, national page 16: The paper names Paul L. Bowen, John S. Daschbach, Henry P. Huff, Barbara Hartle and Terry Pettus as convicted by a Seattle federal jury October 9 of conspiracy to teach and advocate violent overthrow. It says the trial began April 15 with seven defendants, that Karley Larsen separated his defense and was acquitted, and that William J. Pennock died August 2. It does not supply an individualized sentence or a completed term of imprisonment. This contemporary verdict report does not supersede later appellate outcomes. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1953-10-19-5-52-nat-guardian.pdf
