Nathaniel Jones v. United States (526 U.S. 227)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 24, 1999 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 526 U.S. 227 · 119 S. Ct. 1215
- Decided
- March 24, 1999
- Term
- October Term 1998
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. This case turns on whether the federal carjacking statute, 18 U. S. C. §2119, as it was when petitioner was charged, defined three distinct offenses or a single erime with a choice of three maximum penalties, two of them dependent on sentencing factors exempt from the requirements of charge and jury verdict. We think the better reading is of three distinct offenses, particularly in light of the rule that any interpretive uncertainty should be resolved to avoid serious questions about the statute’s constitutionality. t — 1 In December 1992, petitioner, Nathaniel Jones, and two others, Oliver and McMillan, held up two men, Mutanna and Mardaie. While Jones and McMillan went through the victims’ pockets, Oliver stuck his gun in Mutanna’s left ear, and later struck him on the head. Oliver and McMillan made their getaway in the Cadillac Jones had driven to the scene, while Jones forced Mardaie into Mutanna’s Honda and drove off after them. After stopping to put Mardaie out, Jones sped away in the stolen car subject to police pursuit, which ended when Jones crashed into a telephone pole. United States v. Oliver, 60 F. 3d 547, 549 (CA9 1995); Tr. 159, 387, 310 (July 27-28, 1993). A grand Jones and his two accomplices on two counts: using or aiding and abetting the use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in…
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