OCTOBER TERM, 2001
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fourth circuit
No. 01-687. Argued April 15, 2002—Decided May 20, 2002
A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging respondents with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute a "detectable amount" of cocaine and cocaine base. Respondents were convicted and received a sentence based on the District Court's finding of drug quantity—at least 50 grams of cocaine base—that implicated the enhanced penalties of 21 U. S. C. § 841(b). They did not object in the District Court to the fact that the sentences were based on a quantity not alleged in the indictment. While their appeal was pending, this Court decided, in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U. S. 466, 490, that "[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt." In federal prosecutions, such facts must also be charged in the indictment. Id., at 476. Respondents then argued in the Fourth Circuit that their sentences were invalid under Apprendi, because the drug quantity issue was neither alleged in the indictment nor submitted to the petit jury. That court vacated the sentences on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to impose a sentence for an offense not charged in the indictment.
Held:
1. A defective indictment does not deprive a court of jurisdiction. Ex parte Bain, 121 U. S. 1, the progenitor of the Fourth Circuit's view that the indictment errors are "jurisdictional," is a product of an era in which this Court's authority to review criminal convictions was greatly circumscribed. It could examine constitutional errors in a criminal trial only on a writ of habeas corpus, and only then if it deemed the error "jurisdictional." The Court's desire to correct obvious constitutional violations led to a "somewhat expansive notion of 'jurisdiction,' " Custis v. United States, 511 U. S. 485, 494, which is not what the term means today, i. e., "the courts' statutory or constitutional power to adjudicate the case," Steel Co. v. Citizens for Better Environment, 523 U. S. 83, 89. Because subject-matter jurisdiction involves a court's power to hear a case, it can never be forfeited or waived. Thus, defects require correction regardless of whether the error was raised in district court. But a grand jury right can be waived. Post-Bain cases confirm that
625
Page: Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007