Cite as: 523 U. S. 155 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
trict Court sentenced Debra Lewis to life imprisonment without parole. See § 14:30(C) (West 1986).
On appeal the Fifth Circuit held that Louisiana's statute did not apply at Fort Polk. 92 F. 3d 1371 (1996). It noted that the Act made state criminal statutes applicable on federal enclaves only where the wrongful " 'act or omission' " was " 'not made punishable by any enactment of Congress.' " Id., at 1373-1374 (citing 18 U. S. C. § 13). Because Congress made Lewis' acts "punishable" as federal second-degree murder, and the federal and state laws were directed at roughly the same sort of conduct, the Fifth Circuit reasoned that the ACA did not permit the application of Louisiana's first-degree murder statute to petitioner's acts. 92 F. 3d, at 1375-1377. The court nonetheless affirmed Lewis' conviction on the ground that in convicting her of the state charge the jury had necessarily found all of the requisite elements of federal second-degree murder. Id., at 1378; cf. Rutledge v. United States, 517 U. S. 292, 305-306 (1996). And it affirmed the sentence on the ground that it was no greater than the maximum sentence (life) permitted by the federal second-degree murder statute. 92 F. 3d, at 1379- 1380.
We granted certiorari primarily to consider the Fifth Circuit's ACA determination. We conclude that the holding was correct, though we also believe that Lewis is entitled to resentencing on the federal second-degree murder conviction.
II
The ACA applies state law to a defendant's acts or omissions that are "not made punishable by any enactment of Congress." 18 U. S. C. § 13(a) (emphasis added). The basic question before us concerns the meaning of the italicized phrase. These words say that the ACA does not assimilate a state statute if the defendant's "act" or "omission" is punished by "any [federal] enactment." If the words are taken literally, Louisiana's law could not possibly apply to Lewis,
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