Cite as: 517 U. S. 292 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
III
The Government contends that even if conspiracy is a lesser included offense of CCE, the resulting presumption against multiple punishments does not invalidate either of petitioner's convictions. The second conviction, the Government first argues, may not amount to a punishment at all.
We begin by noting that 18 U. S. C. § 3013 requires a federal district court to impose a $50 special assessment for every conviction, and that such an assessment was imposed on both convictions in this case. As long as § 3013 stands, a second conviction will amount to a second punishment. Cf. Ray v. United States, 481 U. S. 736, 737 (1987) (per curiam) (presence of $50 assessment precludes application of "concurrent sentence doctrine"). The Government urges us not to rely on the assessment, however, pointing out that petitioner did not challenge it below, and noting that the question presented "presupposes" fully concurrent sentences. Brief for United States 7, n. 1.
If we ignore the assessment as the Government requests, the force of its argument would nonetheless be limited by our decision in Ball v. United States, 470 U. S. 856 (1985). There, we concluded that Congress did not intend to allow punishment for both illegally "receiving" and illegally "possessing" a firearm. Id., at 861-864. In light of that conclusion, we held that "the only remedy consistent with the contative difference between conspiracy-like crimes and the substantive offenses upon which they are predicated. See, e. g., United States v. Felix, 503 U. S. 378, 389-390 (1992) (allowing prosecution for conspiracy after petitioner was convicted of underlying substantive offense, and citing Garrett as a similar case). No such difference is present here. In contrast to the crimes involved in Garrett, this case involves two conspiracy-like offenses directed at largely identical conduct. Jeffers v. United States, 432 U. S., at 157; Garrett, 471 U. S., at 794 ("[T]he plurality [in Jeffers] reasonably concluded that the dangers posed by a conspiracy and a CCE were similar and thus there would be little purpose in cumulating the penalties").
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