On This Independence Day, Greetings and Saluations to My Fellow Felons

For it is highly likely that everyone reading this blog is a felon. If you have never committed a felony crime in your life, which is damned unlikely, you probably know of someone who has. And if you did not then call the cops and report that crime, you yourself committed a felony and you could do three years in the Federal slam:

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

The question, of course, is what does "conceals" mean. Some courts have held that requires an action of some type, but it's unclear as to what that means.

Prosecutors would be more than happy to charge everyone with this if they could. They'd probably charge the one who committed the crime with not reporting, if the Fifth Amendment didn't stand in their way.

The states have similar type of felony charges just for fucking with people. In Connecticut, if you are on trial for something and you are late for any kind of court date, they will charge you with "failure to appear" and throw you in prison for that, even if the underlying criminal charge is no good.