United States v. Dominick Sabella and Charles Lacascia

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge.

An inadvertent error made by Congress in 1954 in recasting the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code relating to the sale of narcotics has given rise to the problems in the law of double jeopardy which this case presents. Reluctant as we are that two guilty defendants should profit from a mistake that has in no wise prejudiced them, we think their pleas of double jeopardy should have been sustained and accordingly reverse the judgments convicting them of a second offense.

In the course of enacting the Internal Revenue Code that was approved August 16, 1954, Congress…