belief that the federal income tax is unconstitutional is not a defense to a charge of willfulness. These two justices complained, however, about the Court's ruling that a genuine, good faith belief based on a misunderstanding of the Internal Revenue Code is a valid defense. In dissent, Blackmun wrote: Cheek defense Some tax protesters have cited this case for the argument that it is possible to avoid paying taxes without punishment by using the kind of defense raised by Cheek about a good faith misunderstanding of the tax law itself. The Cheek defense is available, however, only in a criminal trial, and not as a method to avoid the payment of tax. In addition, attorney Daniel B. Evans points out that the Cheek defense is logically self-defeating: ...[I]f you plan ahead to use it, then it is almost certain to fail, because your efforts to establish your "good faith belief" are going to be used by the government as evidence that you knew that what you were doing was wrong when you did it, which is why you worked to set up a defense in advance. Later developments In the case of John Cheek: Immediately after the ruling, Cheek's lawyer, William R. Coulson, stated that Cheek had "learned his lesson". Coulson described Cheek as a "gullible victim of the tax protest movement". Further, the case was remanded for a re-trial. In the re-trial, the jury rejected Cheek's argument that he actually "believed" that wages were not taxable. He was again convicted. On March 13, 1992, Cheek was sentenced to one year and one day imprisonment, and he was placed on five years of probation. The conditions of probation were that he would cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service and pay his back taxes, and pay a fine of $62,000. The second conviction was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court let that decision stand by denying review. Cheek was released from prison in December 1992. At least one federal district court has indicated that, in the absence of either testimony by the defendant about his own belief or some other evidence that provides a link to the "taxpayer's mindset", the defendant's lawyer cannot require a court to give a "Cheek defense instruction" to a jury. That decision has been affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the