Thomas Patrick Keating v. United States

Thomas Patrick Keating appeals from a district court order denying his motion to vacate sentence, made pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (1964).

In 1964, Keating was charged, in two counts, with robbing a savings and loan association on November 4, 1963, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a) and (d) (1964), and with receiving the proceeds of that robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (c) (1964). In two other counts, he was charged with robbery of a national bank on November 12, 1963, and with receiving the proceeds of that robbery. A jury convicted him on all four counts. He was sentenced to fifteen years for each robbery count and ten years for each receiving count, the sentences to run concurrently. No appeal was taken from these convictions. In September, 1967, Keating filed this motion to vacate sentence. It was denied by the district court and this appeal followed.

Keating contends that, because of the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury that they could not convict him of both stealing and receiving the same money, the jury illegally convicted him on all four counts. The resulting concurrent sentences, he asserts, are therefore invalid.

A person may not validly be…