Syllabus

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

322 U.S. 4

Pollock v. Williams

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA

1. A statute of Florida which makes guilty of a misdemeanor any person who, with intent to defraud, obtains an advance upon an agreement to render services, and which provides further that failure to perform the services for which an advance was obtained shall be prima facie evidence of intent to defraud, held violative of the Thirteenth Amendment and the federal Anti-peonage Act. Pp. 5, 17.

2. In view of the history and operation of the Florida statute, it cannot be said that a plea of guilty is uninfluenced by the statute's threat to convict by its prima facie evidence section; hence the entire statute is invalid, and a conviction under it, though based upon a plea of guilty, cannot be sustained. P. 15.

3. That, upon a trial of the defendant, his testimony in respect of his intent would have been competent is immaterial. P. 25.

APPEAL from the reversal of a judgment which, upon a writ of habeas corpus, discharged the prisoner, appellant here.