Known To Be A Gangster

A 1934 state law declared that anyone "not engaged in any lawful occupation," "known to be a member of any gang consisting of two or more persons," and previously convicted of a crime was a "gangster", punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Three men were charged under it. The charge alleged that on four dates in June 1936 they had no lawful occupation, were known to be members of a gang, and each had been convicted of a crime in another state. A jury convicted them and they were sentenced to five to ten years at hard labour; the state's appeal courts upheld the law. The defence argued that the law punished no act at all and used words so vague that no one could tell what it forbade.