Cite as: 509 U. S. 688 (1993)
Opinion of Souter, J.
mitted imposition of consecutive sentences had the charges been consolidated in a single proceeding. . . . [C]onviction for adultery required proof that the defendant had sexual intercourse with one woman while married to another; conviction for cohabitation required proof that the defendant lived with more than one woman at the same time. Nonetheless, the Court . . . held the separate offenses to be the 'same.' " Ibid.
In the past 20 years the Court has addressed just this problem of successive prosecution on three occasions. In Harris v. Oklahoma, 433 U. S. 682 (1977) (per curiam), we held that prosecution for a robbery with firearms was barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause when the defendant had already been convicted of felony murder comprising the same robbery with firearms as the underlying felony. Of course the elements of the two offenses were different enough to permit more than one punishment under the Blockburger test: felony murder required the killing of a person by one engaged in the commission of a felony, see 21 Okla. Stat., Tit. 21, § 701 (1971); robbery with firearms required the use of a firearm in the commission of a robbery, see §§ 801, 791. Harris v. State, 555 P. 2d 76, 80 (Okla. Crim. App. 1976), rev'd, 433 U. S. 682 (1977).
In Harris, however, we held that "[w]hen, as here, conviction of a greater crime, murder, cannot be had without conviction of the lesser crime, robbery with firearms, the Double Jeopardy Clause bars prosecution for the lesser crime after conviction of the greater one." We justified that conclusion in the circumstances of the case by quoting Nielsen's explanation of the Blockburger test's insufficiency for determining when a successive prosecution was barred. " '[A] person [who] has been tried and convicted for a crime which has various incidents included in it . . . cannot be a second time tried for one of those incidents without being twice put in jeopardy for the same offence.' In re Nielsen,
755
Page: Index Previous 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007