Carter v. United States, 530 U.S. 255, 22 (2000)

Page:   Index   Previous  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  Next

276

CARTER v. UNITED STATES

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

I note at the outset that the structure of § 2113 points strongly toward the conclusion that bank larceny is a lesser included offense of bank robbery. Section 2113(c) imposes criminal liability on any person who knowingly "receives, possesses, conceals, stores, barters, sells, or disposes of, any property or money or other thing of value which has been taken or stolen from a bank . . . in violation of subsection (b)." If bank larceny, covered in § 2113(b), contains an intent or asportation element not included in bank robbery, covered in § 2113(a), then § 2113(c) creates an anomaly. As the Court concedes, ante, at 263-264, under today's decision the fence who gets his loot from a bank larcenist will necessarily receive property "stolen . . . in violation of subsection (b)," but the one who gets his loot from a bank robber will not. Once it is recognized that bank larceny is a lesser included offense of bank robbery, however, the anomaly vanishes. Because anyone who violates § 2113(a) necessarily commits the lesser included offense described in § 2113(b), a person who knowingly receives stolen property from a bank robber is just as guilty under § 2113(c) as one who knowingly receives stolen property from a bank larcenist.1

I emphasize as well that the title of § 2113 is "Bank robbery and incidental crimes." This Court has repeatedly recognized that " 'the title of a statute and the heading of a section' are 'tools available for the resolution of a doubt'

1 I further note, and the Court does not dispute, that under today's holding the Double Jeopardy Clause would not bar the Government from bringing a bank larceny prosecution against a defendant who has already been acquitted—or, indeed, convicted—by a jury of bank robbery on the same facts. See Blockburger v. United States, 284 U. S. 299 (1932) (Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar consecutive prosecutions for a single act if each charged offense requires proof of an element that the other does not); Tr. of Oral Arg. 46-47 (in response to Court's inquiry, counsel for the Government stated that, under the Government's construction of § 2113, if a jury acquitted a defendant on an indictment for bank robbery, it would be open to the prosecution thereafter to seek the defendant's reindictment for bank larceny).

Page:   Index   Previous  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007