DuPage County Register Cited in U.S. Supreme Court Opinion

The Supreme Court opinion released last week in Whitfield v. United States (here) cites articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the DuPage County Register. Pretty good company for a local newspaper. Unfortunately, it will not help the Register’s circulation since the paper went out of business in 1970. (The DuPage County Register and several other weekly papers merged to become the Arlington Heights Herald and later the Daily Herald (here)). The Whitfield case provided the Court with the opportunity to interpret 18 U.S.C. § 2113(e) which enhances the penalty for bank robbery when the offender “forces any person to accompany him” (emphasis added) in the course of committing or fleeing from a robbery.

After a botched bank robbery, Whitfield fled into the home of Mary Parnell. Once inside, he guided Ms. Parnell from the hallway to a computer room, a distance of between 4 and 9 feet. Whitfield argued that the word “accompany” as used in § 2113(e), required substantial movement and that his short trip with Ms. Parnell did not qualify. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed concluding that, “[a]lthough Whitfield required Mrs. Parnell to accompany him for only a short distance within her own home, and for a brief period, no more is required to prove that a forced accompaniment occurred.” The Supreme Court agreed, observing that it is “natural to speak of accompanying someone over a relatively short distance, for example: from one area within a bank ‘to the vault.’” For this proposition the Court cited a story titled, “Addison State Bank Robbed” that appeared in the April 6, 1928, issue of the DuPage County Register. The article stated that the “bandit accompanied [the teller] to the vault.”

Justice Scalia and his clerks deserve credit for finding this 87 year old story in an obscure and defunct newspaper. But with the internet not much stays hidden. The 1928 article is here.