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James Keller

Released
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1950s
State:Illinois
Support
Civil Liberties
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Biography

James Keller was a foreign-born resident ordered deported for political reasons but whom no country would accept, leaving him under lifetime 'supervisory parole' under the McCarran-Walter Act. He was arrested and indicted in Chicago in late 1955 — one of the first such test prosecutions — for refusing, on First and Fifth Amendment grounds, to answer his parole officers' questions about his associates.

Case

Charges: McCarran-Walter Act — violating supervisory parole by refusing to answer questions
Sentence: Faced a year in jail and a $1,000 fine Verdict as recorded: Indicted 1955; awaiting trial
Convicted: No — pending trial