Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-49_d18e.pdf
Page Number: 9.0

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

7 

Opinion of the Court 

“(B)  if  death  results  from  the  use  of  such  ammuni-

tion— 

“(i)  if  the  killing  is  murder  (as  defined  in  section 
1111), be punished by death or sentenced to a term of 
imprisonment for any term of years or for life; and 

“(ii) if the killing is manslaughter (as defined in sec-
tion  1112),  be  punished  as  provided  in  section  1112.”
(Emphasis added.) 

According to the Government, §924(c)(5) adds two penalties 
together when death results: Someone convicted of murder
resulting from the use of such ammunition faces a 15-year 
mandatory minimum sentence under §924(c)(5)(A) plus an 
additional sentence for murder under §924(c)(5)(B)(i).  Tr. 
of Oral Arg. 27, 31. 

But subsection (j) is cast from a different mold.  Section 
924(c)(5) groups the two penalties together and joins them
with the word “and.”  In contrast, several unrelated subsec-
tions separate subsections (c) and (j) structurally, and noth-
ing joins their penalties textually.  So even if those features 
of §924(c)(5) make it operate as the Government contends, 
those aspects of §924(c)(5) are missing from subsection (j). 
In the Government’s own telling, then, §924(c)(5) shows
how Congress could have constructed penalties that might 
ultimately add together.  Yet Congress did not implement 
that design in subsection (j).

Equally  unavailing  is  the  Government’s  invocation  of
double jeopardy principles.  According to the Government’s
brief, “Section 924(j) amounts to the ‘same offense’ as Sec-
tion 924(c) for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause,” so 
“a  defendant  may  be  punished  for  either  a  Section  924(c) 
offense or a Section 924(j) offense, but not both.”  Brief for 
United  States  22–26  (emphasis  added;  alterations  and 
some internal quotation marks omitted).  The Government 
argues that this conception of double jeopardy confirms sub-
section (j) incorporates all of subsection (c).  Ibid.