Washington v. Recuenco

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Washington v. Recuenco

Argued April 17, 2006
Decided June 26, 2006

Full case name:	Washington v. Recuenco

Citations:	548 U.S. 212

Holding

Reversed and remanded

Court membership

Chief Justice: John Glover Roberts, Jr.
Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito

Case opinions

Majority by: Thomas
Joined by: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Breyer, and Alito
Concurrence by: Kennedy
Dissent by: Stevens
Dissent by: Ginsburg
Joined by: Stevens

Washington v. Recuenco, 548 U.S. 212 (2006) is the United States Supreme Court case of Recuenco, a man who was convicted of second-degree assault after he threatened his wife with a handgun, and subsequently sentenced by the Washington Supreme Court based not only on the conviction, but based on Recuenco's use of a handgun, charged as assault with a deadly weapon. His sentencing included a three-year enhancement, a standard based on his being armed with a firearm, which is greater than the one-year enhancement he would have received for assault with a deadly weapon. As the jury in the case had not not found that Recuenco was armed with a firearm, he argued that the sentencing enhancement violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. The Court held that any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and it vacated Recuenco's sentence and remanded him for re-sentencing.