---
kind: "section"
citation: "18 U.S.C. § 34"
title: "18"
title_heading: "Crimes and Criminal Procedure"
number: "34"
heading: "Penalty when death results"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/18/34"
units:
  - "Part I — Crimes"
  - "Chapter 2 — Aircraft and Motor Vehicles"
---

# §34. Penalty when death results


[Whoever](/usc/18/921.md?p=a-1) is convicted of any crime prohibited by this chapter, which has resulted in the death of any [person](/usc/18/229F.md?p=5), shall be subject also to the death penalty or to imprisonment for life.


## Source credit

(Added July 14, 1956, ch. 595, § 1, 70 Stat. 540; amended Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, § 60003(a)(1), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1968.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “imprisonment for life.” for “imprisonment for life, if the jury shall in its discretion so direct, or, in the case of a plea of guilty, or a plea of not guilty where the defendant has waived a trial by jury, if the court in its discretion shall so order.”