text of § 401 is a maxi mum sentence for punishing a contemnor. See Frank v. United States, 395 U.S. 147, 149, 89 S.Ct. 1503, 23 L.Ed.2d 162 (1969) (noting Congress “placed no statutory maximum that might limit a court’s ability to mete out an appropriate punishment for contempt”). When a statute fails to designate a statutory maximum, it is presumed that the maximum sentence is life. See United States v. Carpenter, 91 F.3d 1282, 1284 (9th Cir.1996) (noting that “[l]ike criminal contempts, Class A felonies have no statutory maximum sentence, short of life imprisonment or death”). Therefore, under § 401 a court has the discretion to sentence a defendant to life imprisonment for criminal contempt. See United States v. LaBonte, 520 U.S. 751, 757, 117 S.Ct. 1673, 137 L.Ed.2d 1001 (1997) (<HOLDING>) (quotation omitted). The classification of
holding the word individuals is not the equivalent of the dictionary acts use of the word persons holding that where the indictment charged drug quantity but drug quantity was not submitted to the jury the district court erred in using drug quantity to increase the penalty beyond the twentyyear maximum of  841b1c holding that the most common definition of a word does not preclude other accepted alternatives holding that the word void is not sufficient holding that the word maximum most naturally connotes the greatest quantity or value attainable in a given case