The Extra Count

A man was part of a scheme to obtain money by extortion in a way that obstructed trade between states. He was convicted of two crimes under the same federal law: agreeing with others to commit the extortion, and the extortion itself. The judge gave him two twelve-year sentences to run one after the other, though the second was suspended. He argued this was double punishment: the agreement and the act were one course of conduct under one law, so the law's twenty-year maximum should be the most he could face in total.