Opinion ID: 4515706
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Grading. Robbery is a crime of the second

Text: degree, except that it is a crime of the first degree 14 if in the course of committing the theft the actor attempts to kill anyone, or purposely inflicts or attempts to inflict serious bodily injury, or is armed with, or uses or threatens the immediate use of a deadly weapon. N.J. STAT. ANN. § 2C:15-1. We can look beyond the elements of the statute for this comparison only if it is “divisible” and lists “elements in the alternative, and thereby define[s] multiple crimes.” Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243, 2249 (2016). The statute is phrased disjunctively, using “or” to offset subsections (a)(1) through (a)(3). Such a statute is divisible if it lists “elements” of the offense and not “means” of committing that offense. Id. at 2248. “‘Elements’ are the ‘constituent parts’ of a crime’s legal definition—the things the ‘prosecution must prove to sustain a conviction.’” Id. (quoting Elements of Crime, BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (10th ed. 2014)). “At a trial, they are what the jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt to convict the defendant, and at a plea hearing, they are what the defendant necessarily admits when he pleads guilty.” Id. (citation omitted). “Means,” on the other hand, are “various factual ways of committing” a single element. Id. at 2249. McCants insists the New Jersey robbery statute is indivisible because the alternatives in subsections (a)(1)–(3) are means, rather than elements. He contends that under Mathis, alternatively-phrased statutes contain elements only when each subsection carries different punishments, which is not true of the New Jersey robbery statute. We disagree. In Mathis, the Supreme Court explained that “the statute on its face may resolve the issue” of characterizing alternatives. Id. at 2256. In doing so, the Court used differences in punishment 15 as an example of a clear statutory clue, not as the only permissible textual analysis. See id. We agree with the Government that the New Jersey robbery statute sets out alternative elements for sustaining a conviction rather than the means of committing the offense. Crimes comprise elements; means illustrate ways of satisfying individual elements. If the subsections of § 2C:15-1 were means, they would list “diverse means of satisfying a single element” of robbery. Id. at 2249 (emphasis added). But the statute does not identify an individual element of which subsections (a)(1)-(3) are mere examples—it states no overarching genus of which they are species. Instead, it lists in the disjunctive three separately enumerated, alternative elements of robbery. By contrast, in Mathis, the burglary statute defined burglary to require “enter[ing] an occupied structure,” IOWA CODE § 713.1, and gave as examples of an occupied structure “any building, structure, [or] land, water, or air vehicle,” id. § 702.12. Thus, the element (the genus) for burglary was an occupied structure and the means (the species) were any building, structure, or land, water, or air vehicle. Here, the alternative elements for robbery are (a)(1)-(3) and the means are the various types of force, threats, and crimes that could satisfy those subsections. Structurally, § 2C:15-1 puts subsections (a)(1)-(3) on the level of elements, not means. Subsections (a)(1)–(3) are elements because each requires different proof beyond a reasonable doubt to sustain a second-degree robbery conviction. Under (a)(1), the prosecutor must prove that the defendant inflicts injury or uses force upon another person. However, the defendant need only threaten or place another person in fear of immediate bodily 16 injury under (a)(2), or threaten to commit another first- or second-degree crime under (a)(3). Our conclusion would be different if McCants could show “that a jury” in New Jersey “need not make any specific findings (or a defendant admissions) on” which of these subsections a defendant violated. Mathis, 136 S. Ct. at 2249. If “[a] jury could convict even if some jurors conclude[d] that the defendant [violated (a)(1)] while others conclude[d] that he [violated (a)(2)],” then the subsections would be means, not elements. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Because McCants makes no such showing, we rely on the phrasing and structure of § 2C:15-1 to hold that subsections (a)(1)-(3) list elements, not means. This analysis parallels our decision in United States v. Blair, 734 F.3d 218 (3d Cir. 2013), where we held that Pennsylvania’s similar robbery statute was divisible because of its “clearly laid out alternative elements.” Id. at 225. McCants argues that our reasoning in Blair has been abrogated by Mathis. But this argument is a nonstarter because earlier this year we reaffirmed that the Pennsylvania robbery statute is divisible. United States v. Peppers, 899 F.3d 211, 232 (3d Cir. 2018) (citing Mathis, 136 S. Ct. at 2256; Blair, 734 F.3d at 225).2 Because N.J. STAT. ANN. § 2C:15-1 lays out alternative 2 We held that this Pennsylvania robbery statute, which was alternatively-phrased, is divisible:
of committing a theft, he:
17 (ii) threatens another with or intentionally puts him in fear of immediate serious bodily injury; (iii) commits or threatens immediately to commit any felony of the first or second degree; (iv) inflicts bodily injury upon another or threatens another with or intentionally puts him in fear of immediate bodily injury; or (v) physically takes or removes property from the person of another by force however slight. Peppers, 899 F.3d at 231 (quoting 18 PA. CONS. STAT. § 3701(a) (June 24, 1976 to May 16, 2010)). Unlike the New Jersey statute, a few subsections of the Pennsylvania statute carried different penalties. Robbery under subsection (a)(1)(iv) was a second-degree felony, while subsection (a)(1)(v) was a third-degree felony. Otherwise, robberies under the other subsections were first-degree felonies. Id. In Ramos, we explained that a similarly-structured Pennsylvania assault statute is divisible two ways. 892 F.3d at 606. First, the statute “proscribes two alternative degrees of aggravated assault, which are subject to different maximum sentences.” Id. at 609. Second, we found “the statute is further divisible into four, alternative second-degree aggravated assault offenses” because the statute uses disjunctive language to list alternative elements—rather than alternative factual means for committing the offense—in each subsection. Id. Accordingly, disjunctive language setting out elements that must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt can independently show the statute is divisible on its face. 18 elements upon which prosecutors can sustain a second-degree robbery conviction, we hold that the statute is divisible.