Prince v. United States/Opinion of the Court

The question presented by this case calls for interpretation of the Federal Bank Robbery Act. 18 U.S.C. § 2113, 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113. That statute creates and defines several crimes incidental to and related to thefts from banks organized or insured under federal laws. Included are bank robbery and entering a bank with intent to commit a robbery. We must decide here whether unlawful entry and robbery are two offenses consecutively punishable in a typical bank robbery situation.

Petitioner entered the Malone State Bank, in Malone, Texas, through an open door and during regular banking hours. He asked for and received certain directions. Thereupon he displayed a revolver, intimidating a bank employee and putting his life in jeopardy, and thus consummated a robbery. A grand jury returned a two-count indictment against him. The first charged the robbery offense; the second, entering the bank with the intent to commit a felony. Petitioner was convicted on both counts, and the district judge sentenced him to 20 years for robbery and 15 years for entering. The sentences were directed to be served consecutively. Some years thereafter, petitioner filed a 'Motion to Vacate or Correct Illegal Sentence.' The District Court, treating it as a proceeding under Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, denied relief without conducting a hearing. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. 230 F.2d 568.

Whether the crime of entering a bank with intent to commit a robbery is merged with the crime of robbery when the latter is consummated has puzzled the courts for several years. A conflict has arisen between the circuits. We granted certiorari because of the recurrence of the question and to resolve the conflict. 351 U.S. 962, 76 S.Ct. 1034, 100 L.Ed. 1482. In addition to the Court of Appeals cases on the precise question, both petitioner and the Government cite as analogous other cases that involved fragmentation of crimes for purposes of punishment. None of these is particularly helpful to us because we are dealing with a unique statute of limited purpose and an inconclusive legislative history. It can and should be differentiated from similar problems in this general filed raised under other statutes. The question of interpretation is a narrow one, and our decision should be correspondingly narrow.

The original Bank Robbery Act was passed in 1934. 48 Stat. 783. It covered only robbery, robbery accompanied by an aggravated assault, and homicide perpetrated in committing a robbery or escaping thereafter. In 1937 the Attorney General requested that the Act be amended. In his letter proposing the bill, the Attorney General declared that 'incongruous results' had developed under the existing law. He cited as a striking instance the case of

' * *  * a man (who) was arrested in a national bank while      walking out of the building with $11,000 of the bank's funds      on his person. He had managed to gain possession of the money     during a momentary absence of one of the employees, without      displaying any force or violence and without putting anyone      in fear-necessary elements of the crime of robbery-and was      about to leave the bank when apprehended. As a result, it was     not practicable to prosecute him under any Federal statute.'

The Act was amended accordingly to add other crimes less serious than robbery. Two larceny provisions were enacted: one for thefts of property exceeding $50, the other for lesser amounts. Congress further made it a crime to

' * *  * enter or attempt to enter any bank *  *  *, with intent      to commit in such bank or building, or part thereof, so used,      any felony or larceny *  *  * .'

Robbery, entering and larceny were all placed in one paragraph of the 1937 Act.

Congress provided for maximum penalties of either a prison term or a fine or both for each of these offenses. Robbery remained punishable by 20 years and $5,000. The larceny penalties were set according to the degree of the offense. Simple larceny could result in 1 year in jail and $1,000 fine, while the maximum for the more serious theft was set at 10 years and $5,000. No separate penalty clause was added for the crime of unlawfully entering. It was simply incorporated into the robbery provision.

The Government asks us to interpret this statute as amended to make each a completely independent offense. It is unnecessary to do so in order to vindicate the apparent purpose of the amendment. The only factor stressed by the Attorney General in his letter to Congress was the possibility that a thief might not commit all the elements of the crime of robbery. It was manifestly the purpose of Congress to establish lesser offenses. But in doing so there was no indication that Congress intended also to pyramid the penalties.

The Attorney General cited the situation of larceny to illustrate his position. It is highly unlikely that he would have wanted to have the offender given 10 years for the larceny plus 20 years for entering the bank with intent to steal. There is no reason to suppose that he wished to have the maximum penalty for robbery doubled by the imposition of 20 years for the robbery to which could be added 20 years for entering the bank. Nor is there anything in the reports of the House of Representatives or the Senate or the floor debates to warrant such a reading of the statute.

It is a fair inference from the wording in the Act, uncontradicted by anything in the meager legislative history, that the unlawful entry provision was inserted to cover the situation where a person enters a bank for the purpose of committing a crime, but is frustrated for some reason before completing the crime. The gravamen of the offense is not in the act of entering, which satisfies the terms of the statute even if it is simply walking through an open, public door during normal business hours. Rather the heart of the crime is the intent to steal. This mental element merges into the completed crime if the robbery is consummated. To go beyond this reasoning would compel us to find that Congress intended, by the 1937 amendment, to make drastic changes in authorized punishments. This was cannot do. If Congress had so intended, the result could have been accomplished easily with certainty rather than by indirection.

We hold, therefore, that when Congress made either robbery or an entry for that purpose a crime it intended that the maximum punishment for robbery should remain at 20 years, but that, even if the culprit should fall short of accomplishing his purpose, he could be imprisoned for 20 years for entering with the felonious intent.

While reasonable minds might differ on this conclusion, we think it is consistent with our policy of not attributing to Congress, in the enactment of criminal statutes, an intention to punish more severely than the language of its laws clearly imports in the light of pertinent legislative history.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed and the case is remanded to the District Court for the purpose of resentencing the petitioner in accordance with this opinion.

Reversed and remanded.

Mr. Justice BURTON dissents for the reasons stated in the opinion of the Court of Appeals, 5 Cir., 230 F.2d 568.

Mr. Justice BLACK took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.