Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-49_d18e.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

This  follows  the  same  pattern  as  several  other  provisions 
enacted alongside subsection (j) in the Federal Death Pen-
alty Act of 1994, 108 Stat. 1959.  In those provisions, as in 
§924(j)(1), Congress authorized the death penalty, but also
a flexible range of lesser sentences for “any term of years,”
with no mandatory minimum or consecutive-sentence man-
date.3  In the same law, Congress also enacted a provision 
allowing judges to go below the otherwise-mandatory mini-
mum sentence in certain cases.4  Given those choices to fa-
vor sentencing flexibility over mandatory penalties, it is not 
“implausible,” as the Government asserts, that subsection
(j) permits flexibility to choose between concurrent and con-
secutive sentences. 

Nor is that flexibility incompatible with the seriousness 
of subsection (j) offenses.  Subsection (j) merely reflects the 
seriousness of the offense using a different approach than 
subsection (c)’s mandatory penalties.  For murder, subsec-
tion (j) authorizes the harshest maximum penalty possible:
death.  §924(j)(1).  And for manslaughter, subsection (j) im-
poses the same harsh punishment that the Federal Crimi-
nal Code prescribes for other manslaughters.  See §924(j)(2)
(aligning penalties with §1112).5 

Congress  could  certainly  have  designed  the  penalty 

—————— 

3 108  Stat.  1971–1973,  1976,  1978–1982  (Pub.  L.  103–322,  §§60008,

60010, 60011, 60019–60024). 

4 Id.,  at  1985–1986  (Pub.  L.  103–322,  §80001)  (enacting  18  U. S. C. 

§3553(f )). 

5 When  Congress  enacted  subsection  (j),  it  actually  imposed  higher 
maximum  penalties  for  manslaughter  under  subsection  (j)  than  what 
subsection (c) had authorized for the base offense.  A base subsection (c)
violation triggered a fixed five-year sentence, while subsection (j)(2) au-
thorized more: up to 10 years for voluntary manslaughter and six years 
for involuntary manslaughter.  18 U. S. C. §§924(c)(1), (i)(2), 1112 (1994
ed.);  see  110 Stat.  3505  (redesignating  subsection  (i)  as  subsection  (j)). 
This  reinforces  that  Congress  designed  subsection  (j)’s  penalties  to  ac-
count for the seriousness of the offense by themselves, without incorpo-
rating penalties from subsection (c).