Court Opinion

ID: 9487587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:21:09.453999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:22.444570
License: Public Domain

BALDOCK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. This court concludes bank larceny is a lesser included offense of bank robbery relying on United States v. Slater, 692 F.2d 107, 109 (10th Cir.1982). In so holding, the court concludes it must follow Slater despite the Supreme Court’s intervening decision in Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 109 S.Ct. 1443, 103 L.Ed.2d 734 (1989). Because I conclude Slater does not conduct the proper analysis required by Schmuck, I dissent.
In Slater, we summarily concluded bank larceny is a lesser included offense of bank robbery noting that “the crime of bank robbery contains all the elements of bank larceny.” Slater, 692 F.2d at 109. Subsequent to our decision in Slater, the Supreme Court decided Schmuck and adopted the “elements test” for determining whether an offense is a lesser included offense. Under this test, a court must engage in a textual comparison of the criminal statutes at issue, Schmuck, 489 U.S. at 720, 109 S.Ct. at 1452-53, and determine whether “the elements of the lesser offense are a subset of the elements of the offense charged.” Id. at 716, 109 S.Ct. at 1450. “Where the lesser offense requires an element not required for the greater offense, no instruction is to be given under Rule 31(c).” Id.
In the instant case, this court concludes Slater “purported to apply” the elements test as dictated by Schmuck because it “referred only to the elements of the offenses.” I disagree. “[T]he elements approach involves a textual comparison of criminal statutes,” id. at 720, 109 S.Ct. at 1453, and there is no indication the Slater court engaged in a textual comparison of the elements of the offenses. Rather, the court summarily concluded that “the crime of bank robbery contains all the elements of bank larceny.” Slater, 692 F.2d at 109. This analysis is insufficient under Schmuck.
*1417I believe the analysis required by Schmuck is properly set forth in United States v. Gregory, 891 F.2d 732 (9th Cir.1989). In Gregory, the Ninth Circuit applied Schmuck and engaged in a textual comparison of the federal bank robbery and bank larceny statutes and concluded bank larceny was not a lesser included offense of bank robbery. Id. at 734. I would follow the analysis set forth in Gregory and affirm the district court.