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Opinion of the Court
fied circumstances or adding others. See Pub. L. 99-646, 100 Stat. 3623 (substituting "aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse" for "rape"); Pub. L. 98-473, 98 Stat. 2138 (adding "escape, murder, kidnaping, treason, espionage," and "sabotage" to first-degree list). By drawing the line between first and second degree, Congress also has carefully decided just when it does, and when it does not, intend for murder to be punishable by death—a major way in which the Louisiana first-degree murder statute (which provides the death penalty) differs from the federal second-degree provision (which does not). 18 U. S. C. § 1111(b); La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 14:30(C) (West Supp. 1997). The death penalty is a matter that typically draws specific congressional attention. See, e. g., Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub. L. 103-322, § 60003, 108 Stat. 1968 (section entitled "Specific Offenses For Which [the] Death Penalty Is Authorized"). As this Court said in Williams, "[w]here offenses have been specifically defined by Congress and the public has been guided by such definitions for many years," it is unusual for Congress through general legislation like the ACA "to amend such definitions or the punishments prescribed for such offenses, without making clear its intent to do so." 327 U. S., at 718 (footnote omitted).
Further, Congress when writing and amending the ACA has referred to the conduct at issue here—murder—as an example of a crime covered by, not as an example of a gap in, federal law. See H. R. Rep. No. 1584, 76th Cong., 3d Sess., 1 (1940) ("Certain of the major crimes . . . such . . . as murder" are "expressly defined" by Congress; assimilation of state law is proper as to "other offenses"); 1 Cong. Deb. 338 (1825) (Daniel Webster explaining original assimilation provision as a way to cover "the residue" of crimes not "provide[d] for" by Congress; at the time federal law contained a federal enclave murder provision, see 1 Stat. 113); see also United States v. Sharpnack, 355 U. S., at 289, and n. 5 (citing 18 U. S. C. § 1111 for proposition that Congress has
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