Cite as: 530 U. S. 255 (2000)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
This traditional reading of the robbery statute makes common sense. The Government agrees that to be convicted of robbery, the defendant must resort to force and violence, or intimidation, to accomplish his purpose. But what purpose could this be other than to steal? The Government describes two scenarios in which, it maintains, a person could commit bank robbery while nonetheless lacking intent to steal. One scenario involves a terrorist who temporarily takes a bank's money or property aiming only to disrupt the bank's business; the other involves an ex-convict, unable to cope with life in a free society, who robs a bank because he wants to be apprehended and returned to prison. Brief for United States 22, n. 13.
The Government does not point to any cases involving its terrorist scenario, and I know of none. To illustrate its ex-convict scenario, the Government cites United States v. Lewis, 628 F. 2d 1276 (CA10 1980), which appears to be the only reported federal case presenting this staged situation. The facts of Lewis—a case on which the Court relies heavily, see ante, at 268, 271—were strange, to say the least. Hoping to be sent back to prison where he could receive treatment for his alcoholism and have time to pursue his writing hobby, Lewis called a local detective and informed him of his intention to rob a bank. 628 F. 2d, at 1277. He also discussed his felonious little plans with the police chief, under-cover police officers, and a psychologist. Ibid. He even allowed his picture to be taken so that it could be posted in local banks for identification. Ibid. Following his much-awaited heist, Lewis was arrested in the bank's outer foyer by officers who had him under surveillance. Id., at 1278.
I am not sure whether a defendant exhibiting this kind of "bizarre behavior," ibid., should in fact be deemed to lack a specific intent to steal. (The Tenth Circuit, I note, determined that specific intent was present in Lewis, for "[t]he jury, charged with the duty to infer from conflicting evidence the defendant's intent, could have concluded that
283
Page: Index Previous 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007