Source: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Abbott_v._United_States
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 07:22:32+00:00

Document:
Abbott v. United States, 562 U.S. ___ (2011), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that addressed the mandatory sentencing increase under federal law for the possession or use of a deadly weapon in drug trafficking and violent crimes. The Court ruled that 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), which required a minimum five-year prison sentence, was to be imposed in addition to any other mandatory sentence given for another crime, including the underlying drug-related or violent offense. The only exception to the five-year addition applied only when another provision required a longer mandatory term for conduct violating §924(c) specifically, rather than a mandatory sentence for another crime as the defendants had unsuccessfully argued.
Petitioners Abbott and Gould, defendants in unrelated prosecutions, were charged with drug and firearm offenses, including violation of 18 U.S.C. §924(c), which prohibits using, carrying, or possessing a deadly weapon in connection with "any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime," §924(c)(1). The minimum prison term for a §924(c) offense is five years, §924(c)(1)(A)(i), in addition to "any other term of imprisonment imposed on the [offender]," §924(c)(1)(D)(ii). Abbott was convicted on the §924(c) count, on two predicate drug-trafficking counts, and of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He received a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence for his felon-in-possession conviction and an additional five years for his §924(c) violation. Gould's predicate drug-trafficking crime carried a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence; he received an additional five years for his §924(c) violation. On appeal, Abbott and Gould challenged their §924(c) sentences, resting their objections on the "except" clause prefacing §924(c)(1)(A). That clause provides for imposition of a minimum five-year term as a consecutive sentence "[e]xcept to the extent that a greater minimum sentence is otherwise provided by [§924(c) itself] or by any other provision of law." Abbott urged that the "except" clause was triggered by his 15-year felon-in-possession sentence; Gould said the same of the ten years commanded by his predicate trafficking crime. The Third Circuit affirmed Abbott's sentence, concluding that the "except" clause "refers only to other minimum sentences that maybe imposed" for §924(c) violations. Gould fared no better before the Fifth Circuit.
^ * Together with No. 09–7073, Gould v. United States, on certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
page 2, slip opinion Held: A defendant is subject to the highest mandatory minimum specified for his conduct in §924(c), unless another provision of law directed to conduct proscribed by §924(c) imposes an even greater mandatory minimum. Pp. 5–18.
(a) Section 924(c) was enacted as part of the Gun Control Act of 1968, but the "except" clause was not added until 1998. Under the pre-1998 text, it is undisputed, separate counts of conviction did not preempt §924(c) sentences, and Abbott and Gould would have been correctly sentenced under §924(c). The question here is whether Congress' 1998 reformulation of §924(c) rendered their sentences excessive. The 1998 alteration responded primarily to Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, which held that §924(c)(1)'s ban on "use" of a firearm did not reach "mere possession" of a weapon, id., at 144. In addition to bringing possession within the statute's compass, Congress increased the severity of §924(c) sentences by changing "once mandatory sentences into mandatory minimum sentences," United States v. O'Brien, 560 U. S. ___, ___, and by elevating the sentences for brandishing and discharging a firearm and for repeat offenses. Congress also restructured the provision, "divid[ing] what was once a lengthy principal sentence into separate subparagraphs," id., at ___, and it added the "except" clause at issue. Pp. 5–8.
(b) The leading portion of the "except" clause now prefacing §924(c)(1)(A) refers to a "greater minimum sentence...otherwise provided by [§924(c) itself]"; the second segment of the clause refers to a greater minimum provided outside §924(c) "by any other provision of law." To determine whether a greater minimum sentence is "otherwise provided...by any other provision of law," the key question is: otherwise provided for what? Most courts have answered: for the conduct §924(c) proscribes, i.e., possessing a firearm in connection with a predicate crime.
page 3, slip opinion original insistence that sentencing judges impose additional punishment for §924(c) violations. Abbott's and Gould's readings would undercut that same bill's primary objective: to expand §924(c)'s coverage to reach firearm possession. Their readings would also result in sentencing anomalies Congress surely did not intend. Section 924(c), as they construe it, would often impose no penalty at all for the conduct that provision makes independently criminal. Stranger still, the worst offenders would often secure shorter sentences than less grave offenders, because the highest sentences on other counts of conviction would be most likely to preempt §924(c) sentences. Abbott and Gould respond that sentencing judges may take account of any anomalies and order appropriate adjustments. While a judge exercising discretion under 18 U.S.C. §3553(a) would not be required to sentence a more culpable defendant to a lesser term, this Court doubts that Congress had such a cure in mind in 1998, seven years before United States v. Booker, 543 U. S. 220, held that district courts have discretion to depart from the Sentencing Guidelines based on §3553(a). Abbott and Gould alternatively contend that Congress could have anticipated that the then-mandatory Guidelines would resolve disparities by prescribing a firearm enhancement to the predicate sentence. But Congress expressly rejected an analogous scheme in 1984, when it amended §924(c) to impose a penalty even when the predicate crime itself prescribed a firearm enhancement. Between 1984 and 1998, Congress expanded the reach or increased the severity of §924(c) four times, never suggesting that a Guidelines firearm enhancement might suffice to accomplish §924(c)'s objective. Nor is there any indication that Congress was contemplating the Guidelines' relationship to §924(c) when it added the "except" clause. Pp. 8–14.
page 4, slip opinion §924(c) proscribes. See United States v. Morrow, 266 U.S. 531, 534–535. There is strong contextual support for the view that the "except" clause was intended simply to clarify §924(c). At the same time Congress added the clause, it made the rest of §924(c) more complex, dividing its existing sentencing prescriptions into four paragraphs, and adding new penalties for brandishing and discharging a firearm. Congress thought the restructuring might confuse sentencing judges: It added the "except" clause's initial part, which covers greater minimums provided "by this subsection," to instruct judges not to stack ten years for discharging a gun on top of seven for brandishing the same weapon. In referencing greater minimums provided by "any other provision of law," the second portion of the clause simply furnishes the same no-stacking instruction for cases in which §924(c)and a different statute both punish conduct offending §924(c). Congress likely anticipated such cases when framing the "except" clause, for the bill that reformulated §924(c)'s text also amended 18 U.S.C. §3559(c) to command a life sentence for certain repeat felons convicted of "firearms possession (as described in §924(c))." This interpretation does not render the "except" clause's second part effectively meaningless. Though §3559(c) is the only existing statute, outside of §924(c) itself, that the Government places within the "except" clause, the "any other provision of law" portion installs a safety valve for additional sentences that Congress may codify outside §924(c) in the future. Neither United States v. Gonzales, 520 U.S. 1, nor Republic of Iraq v. Beaty, 556 U.S. ___, warrants a different conclusion. Pp. 14–18.
No. 09–479, 574 F. 3d 203; No. 09–7073, 329 Fed. Appx. 569, affirmed.
GINSBURG, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all other Members joined, except KAGAN, J., who took no part in the consideration or decision of the cases.
The "slip" opinion is the second version of an opinion. It is sent to the printer later in the day on which the "bench" opinion is released by the Court. Each slip opinion has the same elements as the bench opinion—majority or plurality opinion, concurrences or dissents, and a prefatory syllabus—but may contain corrections not appearing in the bench opinion.

References: v. 
 § 924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 v. 
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 v. 
 §924
 §924
 v. 
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §3553
 v. 
 §3553
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 v. 
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §924
 §3559
 §924
 §3559
 §924
 §924
 v. 
 v.