Court Upholds 10-Year Penalty for Robber’s Flub
WASHINGTON — “This,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Wednesday in announcing one of the term’s less momentous Supreme Court decisions, “is the case of the bumbling bank robber.”
The bank robber, Christopher M. Dean, was wearing a mask and waving a gun when he entered a branch of AmSouth Bank in Rome, Ga., in 2004, saying the usual things. Everyone, as instructed, got down. He walked behind the teller counter, grabbing cash with his left hand and holding his gun with his right.
The gun accidentally went off, hurting no one. Mr. Dean cursed and fled with $3,642.
