Fong Haw Tan v. Phelan
Supreme Court of the United States
333 U.S. 6 (1948)
Fong Haw Tan (plaintiff), a Chinese national, was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on each count in a single proceeding. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien "sentenced more than once" for a crime of moral turpitude is deportable, and the circuit courts had split over whether being convicted and sentenced for multiple offenses in one proceeding -- whether committed at the same or different times -- satisfied that standard. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve the split.
Whether an alien is deportable as sentenced more than once under the Immigration and Nationality Act only when he has committed a crime of moral turpitude, been convicted and sentenced for it, and then separately committed, been convicted of, and been sentenced for a second such crime.