United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U.S. 275, 5 (1999)

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Cite as: 526 U. S. 275 (1999)

Opinion of the Court

As we confirmed just last Term, the " 'locus delicti [of the charged offense] must be determined from the nature of the crime alleged and the location of the act or acts constituting it.' " United States v. Cabrales, 524 U. S. 1, 6-7 (1998) (quoting United States v. Anderson, 328 U. S. 699, 703 (1946)).1 In performing this inquiry, a court must initially identify the conduct constituting the offense (the nature of the crime) and then discern the location of the commission of the criminal acts.2 See Cabrales, supra, at 6-7; Travis v. United States, 364 U. S. 631, 635-637 (1961); United States v. Cores, 356 U. S. 405, 408-409 (1958); Anderson, supra, at 703-706. At the time respondent committed the offense and was tried, 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1) provided:

"Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence . . . for which he may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence . . . be sentenced to imprisonment for five years . . . ." 3

The Third Circuit, as explained above, looked to the verbs of the statute to determine the nature of the substantive of-1 When we first announced this test in United States v. Anderson, 328 U. S., at 703, we were comparing § 11 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 894, in which Congress did "not indicate where [it] considered the place of committing the crime to be," 328 U. S., at 703, with statutes where Congress was explicit with respect to venue. Title 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1), like the Selective Training and Service Act, does not contain an express venue provision.

2 The Government argues that venue also may permissibly be based upon the effects of a defendant's conduct in a district other than the one in which the defendant performs the acts constituting the offense. Brief for United States 16-17. Because this case only concerns the locus delicti, we express no opinion as to whether the Government's assertion is correct.

3 The statute recently has been amended, see Pub. L. 105-386, 112 Stat. 3469, but it is not argued that the amendment is in any way relevant to our analysis in this case.

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