Cite as: 517 U. S. 292 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
sequences recognized by Ball would be. As a result, the conviction amounts to cumulative punishment not authorized by Congress.
IV
The Government further argues that even if the second conviction amounts to punishment, the presumption against allowing multiple punishments for the same crime may be overcome if Congress clearly indicates that it intended to allow courts to impose them. Hunter, 459 U. S., at 366 (citing Whalen, 445 U. S., at 691-692); Garrett v. United States, 471 U. S. 773, 779 (1985) (allowing multiple punishment in light of Congress' "plainly expressed" view). The Government submits that such clear intent can be found here.
The Government finds support for its position in this Court's judgment in Jeffers because that judgment allowed convictions under both §§ 846 and 848 to stand. Those convictions, however, had been entered in separate trials and our review only addressed the conviction under § 848. The Court affirmed that conviction not because anyone on the Court suggested that Congress had intended to authorize dual convictions for the same offense,13 but rather because the four-Justice plurality decided that Jeffers had waived any right to object to Jeffers' prosecution for that conviction, see Jeffers, 432 U. S., at 152-154, and because Justice White believed that the two prosecutions were for different offenses.
The sole ground for Justice White's critical fifth vote to affirm the judgment was his belief, set forth in a single short paragraph, that conspiracy was not a lesser included offense
13 Indeed, the parties insisted that the case did not involve multiple punishment concerns, Jeffers, 432 U. S., at 154, and n. 23, and the Government did not contend that Congress intended to authorize the imposition of dual punishments. Because neither the Court nor the parties addressed the issue, Jeffers is a singularly unlikely source for a holding that Congress clearly authorized multiple convictions. Cf. United States v. L. A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc., 344 U. S. 33, 38 (1952).
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