Zhe Zhang, aka Zack v. United States

This case presents an important question of statutory interpretation involving a federal criminal penalty provision that Congress drafted using the word “or” to connect at least four different sentencing possibilities, but the Second Circuit interpreted here as mandating only a life sentence, namely: Whether the disjunctive language at 18 U.S.C. §1958(a) providing “if death results, [the offender] shall be punished by death or life imprisonment, or shall be fined not more than $250,000, or both,” permits the district court to impose a sentence of death or life imprisonment or a fine or some combination of those options for a defendant convicted of murder-for-hire?