United States v. Batchelder

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United States v. Batchelder
Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg
Decided June 4, 1979
Full case nameUnited States v. Batchelder
Citations442 U.S. 114 ( more )
Holding
Where two statutes criminalize the same act and those statutes have different maximum penalties, the maximum penalty of the statute the prosecutor chose to charge under applies.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr.  · Potter Stewart
Byron White  · Thurgood Marshall
Harry Blackmun  · Lewis F. Powell Jr.
William Rehnquist  · John P. Stevens
Case opinion
MajorityMarshall, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968

United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114 (1979), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that, where two statutes criminalize the same act and those statutes have different maximum penalties, the maximum penalty of the statute the prosecutor chose to charge under applies. [1] [2]

Contents

Description

The case stands for the principle that a single act can violate more than one statute, and the prosecutor has discretion over which statute to charge under regardless of the potential consequences for the defendant. Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote for the unanimous court. [1]

Two sections of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 criminalized possession of a firearm by a felon. One section prescribed a five-year maximum sentence, and the other prescribed two years. The defendant was convicted under the section authorizing five years. When the defendant objected to the disparity on appeal, the lower court applied the rule of lenity and held that the two-year maximum ought to have applied. The Supreme Court overturned that court and said the rule of lenity did not apply because neither of the individual sections were ambiguous. The prosecutor charged the defendant under the section where the maximum penalty was five years; therefore, the maximum sentence was five years. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114 (1979)
  2. Tish, Martin H. (1980). "Duplicative Statutes, Prosecutorial Discretion, and the Illinois Armed Violence Statute". The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 71: 226. doi:10.2307/1142697. JSTOR   1142697.