Brown v. State ( 2021 )

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE
GREGORY BROWN, §
§ No. 317, 2020
Defendant Below, §
Appellant, § Court Below—Superior Court
§ of the State of Delaware
v. §
§ Cr. ID. No: N1908014450
STATE OF DELAWARE, §
§
Plaintiff Below, §
Appellee. §
Submitted: June 16, 2021
Decided: June 24, 2021
Before SEITZ, Chief Justice; VALIHURA, VAUGHN, TRAYNOR, and
MONTGOMERY-REEVES, Justices, constituting the Court en banc.
ORDER
This 24th day of June, 2021, after careful consideration of the parties’
arguments, briefs, and the record on appeal, it appears to the Court that the judgment
of the Superior Court as reflected in its August 20, 2020 Sentence Order and August
31, 2020 Order1 should be affirmed.
Neither the multiplicity doctrine nor the Double Jeopardy Clauses in the
United States and Delaware Constitutions barred the Superior Court’s consideration
of Brown’s convictions of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited (PFBPP)
1
State v. Brown, 2020 WL 5122968 (Del. Super. Ct. Aug. 20, 2020) (written order issued August
31, 2020).
and possession of ammunition by a person prohibited (PABPP), which were based
on Gregory Brown’s simultaneous possession of a firearm and ammunition, as
separate offenses for sentencing purposes. This is so because each of the charges
requires proof of a fact which the other does not—for PFBPP, knowing possession
of a firearm; for PABPP, knowing possession of ammunition.2 We leave for another
day the question ostensibly answered, but without analysis or the citation of
authority, in Buchanan v. State:3 whether 11 Del. C. § 1448 contemplates separate
PFBPP counts—and separate sentencing upon conviction—for the simultaneous
possession of multiple firearms.
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Superior
Court is affirmed.
BY THE COURT:
/s/ Gary F. Traynor
Justice
2
See Nance v. State, 903 A.2d 283, 286 (Del. 2006) (quoting Blockburger v. United States, 284
U.S. 294, 304 (1932)).
3
981 A.2d 1098 (Del. 2009).