Robinson v. United States

The petitioner was indicted and convicted in a District Court for violating the Federal Kidnapping Act, 47 Stat. 326, 48 Stat. 781, by transporting in interstate commerce a person whom he had kidnapped and held for a reward. The jury recommended and the court imposed the death penalty. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, 144 F. *2832d 392. We granted certiorari limited to the sole question of the court’s statutory authority to impose the death sentence.

The Act authorizes the death sentence when recommended by a jury “provided that the sentence of death shall not be imposed by the court if,…