Blockburger v. United States

284 U.S. 299 (1932)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Petitioner was charged with and found guilty of three counts of violating the Harrison Narcotic Act. Each of the counts he was charged with and found guilty of was for a sale of morphine hydrochloride to the same purchaser. The second count charged a sale on a specified day of ten grains of the drug not in or from the original stamped package; the third count charged a sale on the following day of eight grains of the drug not in or from the original stamped package; the fifth count charged the latter sale also as having been made not in pursuance of a written order of the purchaser as required by the statute. Petitioner contends that in two of the sales, having been made to the same purchaser and following each other, with no substantial interval of time between the delivery of the drug in the first transaction and the payment for the second quantity sold, constitutes a single continuing offense.