Source: http://openjurist.org/424/us/544
Timestamp: 2015-04-01 04:41:15
Document Index: 131352719

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 2113', '§ 21']

424 US 544 United States v. Gaddis | OpenJurist
424 U.S. 544 - United States v. Gaddis	Home424 us 544 united states v. gaddis
424 US 544 United States v. Gaddis 424 U.S. 544
96 S.Ct. 1023
47 L.Ed.2d 222
UNITED STATES, Petitioner,v.Bobby Gene GADDIS and Billy Sunday Birt.
Respondents were indicted for entering a federally insured bank with intent to rob it by force and violence (Count 1) and robbing the bank by force and violence (Count 2), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), with possessing the funds stolen in the robbery (Count 3), in violation of § 2113(c), and with assaulting four people with dangerous weapons during the robbery (Counts 4-8), in violation of § 2113(d), and thereafter found guilty and sentenced on all counts. The Court of Appeals reversed, and ordered a new trial on the ground that, as held in Heflin v. United States, 358 U.S. 415, 79 S.Ct. 451, 3 L.Ed.2d 407, it was plain error to allow a jury to convict the accused of receiving and possessing the same money taken in the same bank robbery, and that under Milanovich v. United States, 365 U.S. 551, 81 S.Ct. 728, 5 L.Ed.2d 773, remanding the case for a new trial was the appropriate appellate remedy. Held:
1. A person convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a), (b), and (d) cannot also be convicted of receiving or possessing the robbery proceeds in violation of § 2113(c). Heflin, supra, 358 U.S., at 419-420, 79 S.Ct. 451. Pp. 547-548.
3. The sentences under Counts 1 and 2 should also be vacated. Prince v. United States, 352 U.S. 322, 77 S.Ct. 403, 1 L.Ed.2d 370. P. 549 n. 12.
5 Cir., 506 F.2d 352, vacated and remanded.
Tommy Day Wilcox, Macon, Ga., for respondents, Pro hac vice, by special leave of Court.
A federal grand jury in Georgia, returned an eight-count indictment against the respondents Gaddis and Birt, charging them with entering a federally insured bank with intent to rob it by force and violence (Count 1) and robbing the bank by force and violence (Count 2), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a);1 with possessing the funds stolen in the robbery (Count 3), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(c);2 and with assaulting four people with dangerous weapons during the course of the robbery (Counts 4 to 8), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(d).3 At the ensuing trial the Government's evidence showed that three armed men had on March 6, 1974, robbed the National Bank of Walton County in Loganville, Ga.,4 and that the robbers in making their getaway had engaged in an exchange of gunfire with Loganville's lone police officer. The Government's evidence further showed that two of the three robbers had been Gaddis and Birt.5 The jury found the respondents guilty on all counts of the indictment, and the trial judge sentenced each of them to aggregate prison terms of 25 years.6 In imposing the prison sentences, the judge stated:
"(T)he Court realizes that twenty-five years is the maximum, and the cases say that there is a merger of all of those offenses. If there is any question as to the legality of that sentence, that's the Court's intention."
The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the judgments of conviction and ordered a new trial upon the ground that the District Judge had been in error in permitting the jury to convict the respondents on all eight counts of the indictment. Specifically, the appellate court held that this Court's decision in Heflin v. United States, 358 U.S. 415, 79 S.Ct. 451, 3 L.Ed.2d 407, had made it clear that "it is plain error to all a jury to convict an accused of taking and possessing the same money obtained in the same bank robbery," and that under this Court's decision in Milanovich v. United States, 365 U.S. 551, 81 S.Ct. 728, 5 L.Ed.2d 773, "the proper appellate remedy is to remand for a new trial." 506 F.2d 352, 354. We granted certiorari because of the discordant views in the Circuits regarding the proper application of the Heflin and Milanovich decisions.7 421 U.S. 987, 95 S.Ct. 1989, 44 L.Ed.2d 476.
The Court of Appeals was correct in holding that a person convicted of robbing a bank in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a), (b), and (d), cannot also be convicted of receiving or possessing the proceeds of that robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 21