12
Scalia, J., dissenting
quires the Government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant would have at least attempted to seriously harm or kill the driver if that action had been necessary to complete the taking of the car.
In short, we disagree with petitioner's reading of the text of the Act and think it unreasonable to assume that Congress intended to enact such a truncated version of an important criminal statute.14 The intent requirement of § 2119 is satisfied when the Government proves that at the moment the defendant demanded or took control over the driver's automobile the defendant possessed the intent to seriously harm or kill the driver if necessary to steal the car (or, alternatively, if unnecessary to steal the car). Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
It is so ordered.
Justice Scalia, dissenting.
The issue in this case is the meaning of the phrase, in 18 U. S. C. § 2119, "with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm." (For convenience' sake, I shall refer to it in this opinion as simply intent to kill.) As recounted by the Court, petitioner's accomplice, Vernon Lennon, "testified that the plan was to steal the cars without harming the victims, but that he would have used his gun if any of the drivers had given him a 'hard time.' " Ante, at 4. The District Court instructed the jury that the intent element would be satisfied if petitioner possessed this "conditional"
14 We also reject petitioner's argument that the rule of lenity should apply in this case. We have repeatedly stated that " '[t]he rule of lenity applies only if, after seizing everything from which aid can be derived, . . . we can make no more than a guess as to what Congress intended.' " Muscarello v. United States, 524 U. S. 125, 138 (1998) (quoting United States v. Wells, 519 U. S. 482, 499 (1997)) (additional quotations and citations omitted). Accord, Ladner v. United States, 358 U. S. 169, 178 (1958). The result of our preceding analysis requires us to make no such guess in this case.
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