Biography
Oleta O'Connor Yates was the California CPUSA chair; lead named defendant in Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 (1957). Sentenced 5 years + $10,000; conviction reversed by Yates "Red Monday" decision.
The ILWU Dispatcher of August 15, 1952 reported that Oleta O’Connor Yates received an additional one-year sentence for refusing to identify people who were not defendants. This reports an imposed term, not an additional year actually served.
Reported sentence under William C. Mathes: five years and $10,000, not established actual service. 1952 report.
The Supreme Court’s 1958 opinion describes bail releases and renewed detentions in 1951–1952, followed by a later fifteen-day confinement. It reports seven months across the proceedings. These interrupted stays do not establish continuous imprisonment from 1952 through 1957; the reported aggregate is not a five-year term served. Yates v. United States, 356 U.S. 363, 363–367 (1958).
Yates’s separate criminal-contempt judgment was entered August 8, 1952. The eleven one-year terms ran concurrently; later appellate proceedings reduced the matter to one contempt and, in 1958, to time already confined. These rulings do not establish one year actually served. Yates v. United States, 356 U.S. 363, 364–367 (1958).
