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33 Calif. L. Rev. 543 (1945)
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure

handle is hein.journals/calr33 and id is 561 raw text is: The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Lester B. Orfield* T Is the writer's purpose to set forth simply and clearly the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.' The writer is a member of the Ad- visory Committee on Rules of Criminal Procedure appointed by the Supreme Court, but for any opinion expressed in this article he alone is responsible. The Advisory Committee prepared at least ten drafts. The First Preliminary Draft to be distributed to the bench and bar was dis- tributed in May 1943.2 The Second Preliminary Draft to be so dis- tributed was distributed in February 1944.' The Final Draft of the Rules known as the Report was printed in July 1944, and was sub- mitted on August 9, 1944, to the Supreme Court for its consideration. The Rules were transmitted to the Attorney General by the Chief Justice on December 26, 1944, and reported by the Attorney General *Legislative Assistant, Council of State Governments, Chicago, Illinois; member of the United States Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules of Criminal Procedure; author of CRnrwA. APPEALS IN A -mICA (1939) and CRIhrnr, PRocEDURE rRom: ARREST To APPEA. (1946). 1 Five pieces of legislation authorized the Supreme Court to lay down rules of crimi- nal procedure: the Criminal Appeals Act (1933) 47 STAT. 904, [as amended by (1934) 48 STAT. 399] 18 U.S.C. (1940) 688, covering appeals by the defendant; the Criminal Rules Act, 54 STAT. (1940) 688, 18 U.S.C. (1940) 687, covering procedure before appeal; the Petty Offenses Rules Act, 54 STAT. (1940) 1059, 18 U.S.C. (1940) 576a, covering trials of petty offenses before commisioners; the Contempt Rules Act, 55 STAT. (1941) 779, 18 U.S.C. (1942) 689, covering criminal contempts; and the Government Appeals Act, 56 STAT. (1942) 271, 18 U.S.C. (1942) 682, covering alpeals by the prosecution. 2See explanation in (1944) 43 MiCE. L. REv. 407, 408. For discussions of the First Preliminary Draft, see Wendell Berge, Proposed Fed- eral Rules of Criminal Procedure (1943) 42 MIcH. L. REv. 353; George H. Dession, The Proposed Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (1944) 18 CONN. BAR. J. 58; George F. Longsdorf, New Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (1943) 18 CAIrF. STATE BAR J. 263; Lester B. Orfield, The Preliminary Draft of the Federal Rules of Criminal Proce- dure (1943-1944) 22 TExAs L. REv. 37, 194. 3 For discussions of the Second Preliminary Draft, see A. J. Harno, Proposed Rules of Criminal Procedure (1944),42 MicE. L. REV. 623; John B. Waite, The Proposed Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (1943) 27 J. Amr. Junl. Soc. 101; George Z. Med- alie, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (1944) 4 LAWYER's GuILD Rv. (3) 1.