Felix Frankfurter

“ Unlike all of these cases, the problem before us does not involve the appropriate unit of prosecution-whether conduct constitutes one or several violations of a single statutory provision-nor is it an open question whether conspiracy and its substantive aim merge into a single offense. This is an ordinary case of a defendant convicted of violating two separate provisions of a statute, whereby Congress defined two historically distinctive crimes composed of differing components. ”

“ That some of the substantive sections may be repetitive as being variants in phrasing of the same delict, or that petitioner could not be cumulatively punished for both an attempt to extort and a completed act of extortion, has no relevance to the legal consequences of two incontestably distinctive offenses, conspiracy and the completed crime that is its object. ”

“ Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body. ”

“ All the legislative talk only reiterates what the statute itself says-that the maximum penalty is twenty years.
The distinctiveness between a substantive offense and a conspiracy to commit is a postulate of our law. 'If has been long and consistently recognized by the Court that the commission of the substantive offense and a conspiracy to commit it are separate and distinct offenses.' Pinkerton v. ”

“ McClaughry, 183 U.S. 365, 22 S.Ct. 181, 46 L.Ed. 236, cumulative sentences for conspiracy to defraud and fraud were upheld. 'Cumulative sentences,' the Court pronounced, 'are not cumulative punishments, and a single sentence for several offenses, in excess of that prescribed for one offense, may be authorized to statute.' 183 U.S. at page 394, 22 S.Ct. at page 193.
This settled principle derives from the reason of things in dealing with socially reprehensible conduct: collective criminal agreement-partnership in crime-presents a greater potential threat to the public than individual delicts. ”

“ Concerted action both increases the likelihood that the criminal object will be successfully attained and decreases the probability that the individuals involved will depart from their path of criminality. Group association for criminal purposes often, if not normally, makes possible the attainment of ends more complex than those which one criminal could accomplish. ”

“ The defendant in a misdemeanor trial was entitled to counsel and a copy of the indictment; these advantages were unavailable on trial for a felony. King v. Westbeer, 1 Leach 12, 15, 168 Eng.Rep. 108, 110 (1739) ; see Clark and Marshall, Crimes, § 2.03, n. 96 (6th ed) . Therefore no conviction was permitted of a constituent misdemeanor upon an indictment for the felony. When the substantive crime was also a misdemeanor, People v. Mather, 4 Wend., N.Y., 229, 265, or when the conspiracy was defined by statute as a felony, State v. ”

“ That is not the function of the judiciary. In United States v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp., 344 U.S. 218, 73 S.Ct. 227, 97 L.Ed. 260; Bell v. United States, 349 U.S. 81, 75 S.Ct. 620, 99 L.Ed. 905, and Ladner v. United States, 358 U.S. 169, 79 S.Ct. 209, 3 L.Ed.2d 199, the applicable statutory provisions were found to be unclear as to the appropriate unit of prosecution; accordingly, the rule of lenity was utilized, in favorem libertatis, to resolve the ambiguity. In Price v. ”