Summary
The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Willie Nance's convictions for four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, along with drug convictions. The court held that imposing separate firearm convictions based on two firearms and two underlying drug felonies did not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause because Delaware's statute reflected legislative intent to allow multiple convictions. The court also concluded that, because the issue was not raised below, review was for plain error and no error occurred.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibited four separate convictions for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony when the convictions were based on two firearms and two separate underlying drug felonies.
- Whether the unpreserved Double Jeopardy claim constituted plain error.
Holdings
- The Double Jeopardy Clause did not prohibit four separate convictions for possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony because the Delaware legislature clearly intended separate weapons convictions for each deadly weapon and each separate underlying felony.
- There was no plain error because the four firearm convictions did not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.
Key quotations
“The legislative intent of the relevant statute was to impose multiple convictions for the prohibited conduct. Consequently, there is no violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause.” (284-285)
“The statute's unambiguous language supports the multiplication of counts of Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony by both the number of weapons as well as the number of separate underlying felonies.” (288)
Factual background
Police investigating a shoplifting encountered Lamar Joe, who possessed suspected marijuana, a dagger, and cash. When officers went to the residence where Joe lived, Nance consented to their entry and later signed written consent to search the room he shared with Joe. The search revealed a shotgun, a handgun, cocaine, marijuana seeds, and drug-packaging materials. Nance was convicted of two underlying drug felonies and two firearm offenses associated with each drug felony.
Procedural history
The Superior Court of Delaware convicted Nance of the drug and firearm offenses and sentenced him to a total of twelve years of Level V incarceration followed by probation. Because Nance did not raise the Double Jeopardy objection below, the Supreme Court reviewed the constitutional claim for plain error and affirmed.