278
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
direction may be taken as satisfaction with widely accepted definitions, not as a departure from them." Id., at 263.
In interpreting § 2113, then, I am guided by the common-law understanding of "robbery and incidental crimes." At common law, as the Government concedes, robbery was an aggravated form of larceny. Specifically, the common law defined larceny as "the felonious taking, and carrying away, of the personal goods of another." 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 230 (1769) (Black-stone) (internal quotation marks omitted). Robbery, in turn, was larceny effected by taking property from the person or presence of another by means of force or putting in fear. Brief for United States 29-30 (citing 2 W. LaFave & A. Scott, Substantive Criminal Law § 8.11, pp. 437-438 (1986) (LaFave & Scott)). Larceny was therefore a lesser included offense of robbery at common law. See 4 Blackstone 241 (robbery is "[o]pen and violent larciny from the person" (emphasis deleted)); 2 E. East, Pleas of the Crown § 124, p. 707 (1803) (robbery is a species of "aggravated larceny"); 2 W. Russell & C. Greaves, Crimes and Misdemeanors *101 ("robbery is an aggravated species of larceny").
Closer inspection of the common-law elements of both crimes confirms the relationship. The elements of common-law larceny were also elements of robbery. First and most essentially, robbery, like larceny, entailed an intentional taking. See 4 Blackstone 241 (robbery is "the felonious and forcible taking, from the person of another, of goods or money to any value, by putting him in fear"); 2 East, supra, at 707 (robbery is the "felonious taking of money or goods, to any value, from the person of another, or in his presence, against his will, by violence or putting him in fear"). Second, as the above quotations indicate, the taking in a robbery had to be "felonious," a common-law term of art signifying an intent to steal. See 4 Blackstone 232 ("This taking, and carrying away, must also be felonious; that is, done animo
Page: Index Previous 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007