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Page Number: 9.0

6 

BOND v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

B 
Petitioner  Carol  Anne  Bond  is  a  microbiologist  from
Lansdale,  Pennsylvania.    In  2006,  Bond’s  closest  friend, 
Myrlinda  Haynes,  announced  that  she  was  pregnant. 
When  Bond  discovered  that  her  husband  was  the  child’s 
father,  she  sought  revenge  against  Haynes.    Bond  stole  a 
quantity  of  10-chloro-10H-phenoxarsine  (an arsenic-based 
compound)  from  her  employer,  a  chemical  manufacturer.
She also ordered a vial of potassium dichromate (a chemi-
cal  commonly  used  in  printing  photographs  or  cleaning 
laboratory  equipment)  on  Amazon.com.  Both  chemicals 
are toxic to humans and, in high enough doses, potentially
lethal.  It  is  undisputed,  however,  that  Bond  did  not  in-
tend to kill Haynes.  She instead hoped that Haynes would 
touch the chemicals and develop an uncomfortable rash. 

Between  November  2006  and  June  2007,  Bond  went  to 
Haynes’s  home  on  at  least  24  occasions  and  spread  the 
chemicals on her car door, mailbox, and door knob.  These 
attempted  assaults  were  almost  entirely  unsuccessful. 
The chemicals that Bond used are easy to see, and Haynes
was  able  to  avoid  them  all  but  once.  On  that  occasion, 
Haynes  suffered  a  minor  chemical  burn  on  her  thumb,
which she treated by rinsing with water.  Haynes repeat-
edly  called  the  local  police  to  report  the  suspicious  sub-
stances,  but  they  took  no  action.  When  Haynes  found 
powder  on  her  mailbox,  she  called  the  police  again,  who 
told her to call the post office.  Haynes did so, and postal
inspectors  placed  surveillance  cameras  around  her  home. 
The  cameras  caught  Bond  opening  Haynes’s  mailbox, 
stealing  an  envelope,  and  stuffing  potassium  dichromate 
inside the muffler of Haynes’s car. 

Federal  prosecutors  naturally  charged  Bond  with  two
counts  of  mail  theft,  in  violation  of  18  U. S. C.  §1708.
More  surprising,  they  also  charged  her  with  two  counts
of  possessing  and  using  a  chemical  weapon,  in  violation
of  section  229(a).    Bond  moved  to  dismiss  the  chemical