Fred Fine

Released
Full name:Fred M. Fine
Date of birth:1914
Date of death:01. 01. 2001
Age:87† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1950s
State:Illinois
Support
Communism Marxism Communist Party USA
Fred Fine

Biography

Midwestern Communist Party USA leader and one of the four Smith Act defendants who went underground in 1951 rather than surrender to begin serving their sentences. Convicted in the 1952 second-string Foley Square Smith Act trial and sentenced in January 1953 to 3 years; surrendered in 1956 and served additional time for bail-jumping.

Fred M. Fine was one of six Communist Party leaders convicted in the second New York Smith Act trial (1956). In August 1958 the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed their convictions and dismissed the indictment, holding the evidence showed only 'teaching and advocacy,' not incitement to action.

Cases

Charges: Smith Act (18 U.S.C. § 2385) plus bail-jumping
Arrested: November 1955
Sentence: 3 years (Smith Act) plus additional time for bail-jumping — A fugitive from the 1951 indictment, Fine surrendered about November 1955 (some sources say early 1956) and was released on bail; no post-conviction prison term is documented before his conviction was reversed in 1958. Exact custody dates not established. Verdict as recorded: Convicted in the later Smith Act trial; reversed 1958
Convicted: Yes
Charges: Smith Act — teaching and advocating the overthrow of the government
Sentence: Conviction reversed; indictment dismissed Verdict as recorded: Convicted 1956; reversed and indictment dismissed August 1958
Convicted: Yes

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