On March 29, 1990, Wallace was indicted on three counts of tax evasion under 26 U.S.C. § 7201 and three counts of willful failure to timely file Federal income tax returns or pay taxes under 26 U.S.C. § 7203. At his trial, Wallace filed a “Motion to Challenge the Oath.” He proposed an alternative oath written by him, to be used before testifying. His alternative oath was to be worded as follows: “Do you affirm to speak with fully integrated Honesty, only with fully integrated Honesty and nothing but fully integrated Honesty?” The court denied Ward’s request, stating that the standard oath “which has been administered in courts of law throughout the United States [ . . . ] should not be required to give way to the defendant’s idiosyncratic distinctions between truth and honesty.” The court would not allow Ward to testify in his defense unless he took the standard oath.
Ward made an opening statement at the trial, and cross-examined government witnesses. He also offered a compromise whereby he would take both the standard oath and his own oath, and the court denied that request. Ward presented no witnesses on his own behalf, and did not testify himself. He was convicted on all charges. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed Ward’s conviction, stating that his belief was apparently sincere, and that his sincere belief was protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals quoted from the Fourth Circuit opinion in the case of United States v. Looper[11] to the effect that “[a]ll the common law requires is a form or statement which impresses upon the mind and conscience of a witness the necessity for telling the truth. Thus, defendant’s privilege to testify may not be denied him solely because he would not accede to a form of oath or affirmation not required by the common law”.
Ward was allowed to use his own oath in a re-trial. At the re-trial, on December 2, 1993, Ward was convicted in connection with tax evasion on combined personal income of over $438,000 for years 1983, 1984, and 1985, and combined income of over $614,000 for his company (I&O Publishing) for those years, and he was sent to prison. Ward’s challenges to the imposition of civil tax fraud penalties were rejected.
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