Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/508/129/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 14:20:08+00:00

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A defendant who is convicted in a single proceeding of multiple violations of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1) for using a gun during a crime of violence is subject to statute's provisions imposing a more severe sentence for a "second or subsequent conviction."
On the basis of his use of a gun in committing six bank robberies on different dates, petitioner Deal was convicted, in a single proceeding, of six counts of carrying and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(I). Section 924(c)(I) prescribes a 5-year prison term for the first such conviction (in addition to the punishment provided for the crime of violence) and requires a 20year sentence "[i]n the case of [a] second or subsequent conviction under this subsection." The District Court sentenced Deal to 5 years' imprisonment on the first § 924(c)(I) count and to 20 years on each of the five other counts, the terms to run consecutively. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
of Deal's sentence (105 years) is "glaringly unjust." Under any conceivable reading of § 924(c)(I), some criminals convicted of six armed bank robberies would receive a sentence of that length. It is not "glaringly unjust" to refuse to give Deal a lesser sentence merely because he escaped apprehension and conviction until the sixth crime had been committed. Pp. 131-137.
SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE, KENNEDY, SOUTER, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BLACKMUN and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, post, p. 137.
Dola J. Young argued the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs were Roland E. Dahlin II and H. Michael Sokolow.
With him on the brief were Solicitor General Starr, Assistant Attorney General Mueller, Deputy Solicitor General Bryson, and Robert J. Erickson.
"Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence ... uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence ... , be sentenced to imprisonment for five years .... In the case of his second or subsequent conviction under this subsection, such person shall be sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years .... "
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas sentenced petitioner to 5 years' imprisonment on the first § 924(c)(1) count and to 20 years on each of the other five § 924(c)(1) counts, the terms to run consecutively. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentence. 954 F.2d 262 (1992). We granted certiorari on the question whether petitioner's second through sixth convictions under § 924(c)(1) in this single proceeding arose "[i]n the case of his second or subsequent conviction" within the meaning of § 924(c)(1). 506 U. S. 814 (1992).
Petitioner contends that the language of § 924(c)(1) is facially ambiguous, and should therefore be construed in his favor pursuant to the rule of lenity. His principal argument in this regard is that the word "conviction" can, according to the dictionary, have two meanings, "either the return of a jury verdict of guilt or the entry of a final judgment on that verdict," Brief for Petitioner 4; and that the phrase "second or subsequent conviction" could therefore "mean 'an additional finding of guilt rendered at any time'" (which would include petitioner's convictions on the second through sixth counts in the single proceeding here) or "'a judgment of conviction entered at a later time,'" (which would not include those convictions, since the District Court entered only a single judgment on all of the counts), id., at 7.
meanings is ordinarily eliminated by context. There is not the slightest doubt, for example, that § 924(c)(1), which deals with punishment in this world rather than the next, does not use "conviction" to mean the state of being convicted of sin. Petitioner's contention overlooks, we think, this fundamental principle of statutory construction (and, indeed, of language itself) that the meaning of a word cannot be determined in isolation, but must be drawn from the context in which it is used. See King v. St. Vincent's Hospital, 502 U. S. 215, 221 (1991); Davis v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 489 U. S. 803, 809 (1989); United States v. Morton, 467 U. S. 822, 828 (1984).
In the context of § 924(c)(1), we think it unambiguous that "conviction" refers to the finding of guilt by a judge or jury that necessarily precedes the entry of a final judgment of conviction. A judgment of conviction includes both the adjudication of guilt and the sentence. See Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(b)(1) ("A judgment of conviction shall set forth the plea, the verdict or findings, and the adjudication and sentence" (emphasis added)); see also Black's Law Dictionary 843 (6th ed. 1990) (quoting Rule 32(b)(1) in defining "judgment of conviction"). Thus, if "conviction" in § 924(c)(1) meant "judgment of conviction," the provision would be incoherent, prescribing that a sentence which has already been imposed (the defendant's second or subsequent "conviction") shall be 5 or 20 years longer than it was.
§ 924(c)(1) requires would already have been imposed. And more fundamentally still, petitioner's contention displays once again the regrettable penchant for construing words in isolation. The word "case" can assuredly refer to a legal proceeding, and if the phrase "in the case of" is followed by a name, such as "Marbury v. Madison," that is the apparent meaning. When followed by an act or event, however, "in the case of" normally means "in the event of" -and we think that is its meaning here.
1 Petitioner also argues that the terms "second" and "subsequent" admit of at least two meanings-next in time and next in order or succession. That ambiguity is worth pursuing if "conviction" means "judgment," since a judgment entered once-in-time can (as here) include multiple counts. The point becomes irrelevant, however, when "conviction" means (as we hold) a finding of guilt. Unlike a judgment on several counts, findings of guilt on several counts are necessarily arrived at successively in time.
The dissent contends that § 924(c)(1) must be read to impose the enhanced sentence only for an offense committed after a previous sentence has become final. Though this interpretation was not mentioned in petitioner's briefs, and was put forward only as a fallback position in petitioner's oral argument, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 4, the dissent thinks it so "obvious," post, at 142, that our rejection of it constitutes a triumph of "textualism" over "common sense," post, at 146, and the result of "an elaborate exercise in sentence parsing," ibid. We note, to begin with, that most of the textual distinctions made in this opinion-all of them up to this pointrespond to the elaborate principal argument of petitioner that "conviction" means "entry of judgment." It takes not much "sentence parsing" to reject the quite different argument of the dissent that the terms "subsequent offense" and "second or subsequent conviction" mean exactly the same thing, so that "second conviction" means "first offense after an earlier conviction."
2 The dissent contends that even under our reading of the statute, "prosecutors will continue to enjoy considerable discretion in deciding how many § 924(c) offenses to charge in relation to a criminal transaction or series of transactions." Post, at 145. That discretion, however, pertains to the prosecutor's universally available and unvoidable power to charge or not to charge an offense. Petitioner's reading would confer the extraordinary new power to determine the punishment for a charged offense by simply modifying the manner of charging.
example. Or "criminal offense" instead of "crime." But to say that "subsequent offense" means the same thing as "second or subsequent conviction" requires a degree of verbal know-nothingism that would render government by legislation quite impossible. Under the terminology "second or subsequent conviction," in the context at issue here, it is entirely clear (without any "sentence parsing") that a defendant convicted of a crime committed in 1992, who has previously been convicted of a crime committed in 1993, would receive the enhanced sentence.
"'It cannot legally be known that an offense has been committed until there has been a conviction. A second offense, as used in the criminal statutes, is one that has been committed after conviction for a first offense.'" Ibid. (quoting Holst v. Owens, 24 F.2d 100, 101 (CA5 1928)).
3 The dissent quotes approvingly the ungarnished policy view that "'punishing first offenders [i. e., repeat offenders who have not yet been convicted of an earlier offense] with twenty-five-year sentences does not deter crime as much as it ruins lives.'" Post, at 146, n. 10 (quoting United States v. Jones, 965 F.2d 1507, 1521 (CAS 1992)).
example, with life in prison rather than a term of yearswhether or not conviction of the first murder (or completion of the sentence for the first murder) has yet occurred.
Finally, we need not tarry over petitioner's contention that the rule of lenity is called for because his 105-year sentence "is so glaringly unjust that the Court cannot but question whether Congress intended such an application of the phrase, 'in the case of his second or subsequent conviction.'" Brief for Petitioner 24. Even under the dissent's reading of § 924(c)(1), some criminals whose only offenses consist of six armed bank robberies would receive a total sentence of 105 years in prison. We see no reason why it is "glaringly unjust" that petitioner be treated similarly here, simply because he managed to evade detection, prosecution, and conviction for the first five offenses and was ultimately tried for all six in a single proceeding.
1 See, e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 1302 ("subsequent offense" related to mailing of lottery tickets); § 1735 ("second or subsequent offense" related to sexually oriented advertising); § 844(h) ("second or subsequent conviction" for felonious use of explosives).
2 See, e. g., 21 U. S. C. § 859(b) (1988 ed., Supp. III) (distribution of drugs to minors); 21 U. S. C. § 860(b) (1988 ed., Supp. III) (distribution of drugs near schools); 21 U. S. C. § 962(b) (importation of controlled substances).
it relies on settled usage and the reader's common sense to impart the same meaning.
In certain sections of the Code, even absent a definition, the context makes perfectly clear that the word "subsequent" describes only those offenses committed after a prior conviction has become final. Title 18 U. S. C. § 1302, for instance, which prohibits mailing of lottery tickets, authorizes a 5-year prison sentence for "any subsequent offense." A literal reading of that phrase, like the one adopted by the majority today, presumably would justify imposition of five 5-year sentences if a defendant who sold six lottery tickets through the mail were charged in a single indictment. But it is absurd to think that Congress intended to treat such a defendant as a repeat offender, subject to penalty enhancement, "simply because he managed to evade detection, prosecution, and conviction for the first five offenses and was ultimately tried for all six in a single proceeding." Ante, at 137.
3 See, e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 2114 ("subsequent offense" of mail robbery), as interpreted in United States v. Cooper, 580 F.2d 259, 261 (CA7 1978) ("obvious" that "subsequent offense" language must be read as applying only to offenses committed after conviction on a prior offense).
meaning of the statute could occur only after a conviction for the first offense. See, e. g., United States v. Lindquist, [285 F.4d 7 (WD Wash. 1921)], and Biddle v. Thiele, [11 F.2d 235 (CA81926)]. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in Holst v. Owens, [24 F.2d 100, 101 (1928)]: 'It cannot legally be known that an offense has been committed until there has been a conviction. A second offense, as used in the criminal statutes, is one that has been committed after conviction for a first offense. Likewise, a third or any subsequent offense implies a repetition of crime after each previous conviction.' Similarly, in Smith v. United States, [41 F.2d 215, 217 (CA9 1930)], the court stated: 'In order that a conviction shall affect the penalty for subsequent offenses, it must be prior to the commission of the offense.'" Ibid.
Congress did not define the term "subsequent conviction" when it enacted § 924(c) in 1968. It is fair to presume, however, that Congress was familiar with the usage uniformly followed in the federal courts. See NLRB v. Amax Coal Co., 453 U. S. 322, 329 (1981); Perrin v. United States, 444 U. S. 37, 42-45 (1979). Indeed, given the settled construction of repeat offender provisions, it is hardly surprising that Congressman Poff, who proposed the floor amendment that became § 924(c), felt it unnecessary to elaborate further. Cf. Morissette v. United States, 342 U. S. 246, 263 (1952) ("[W]here Congress borrows terms of art ... absence of contrary direction may be taken as satisfaction with widely accepted definitions, not as a departure from them"). It is also unsurprising that there appears to have been no misunderstanding of the term "second or subsequent conviction" for almost 20 years after the enactment of § 924(c).
rate trials, the defendant was sentenced in each for bank robbery, and in each to 10 years under § 924(c), then the maximum authorized term for a first-time offender. Id., at 9. Apparently, nobody considered the possibility that the defendant might have been treated as a repeat offender at his second trial, and sentenced under § 924(c)'s "second or subsequent conviction" provision. In any event, despite the fact that the literal language of the statute would have authorized the § 924(c) sentences, id., at 16-17 (REHNQUIST, J., dissenting), the Court set them aside, applying the rule of lenity and concluding that Congress did not intend enhancement under § 924(c) when, as in Simpson's case, a defendant is also sentenced under a substantive statute providing for an enhancement for use of a firearm. Id., at 14-15.
"I agree with the holding in Simpson that Congress did not intend to 'pyramid' punishments for the use of a firearm in a single criminal transaction. Yet I find quite implausible the proposition that Congress, in enacting § 924(c)(1), did not intend this general enhancement provision-with its stiff sanctions for first offenders and even stiffer sanctions for recidivists-to serve as an alternative source of enhanced punishment for those who commit felonies, such as bank robbery and assaulting a federal officer, that had been previously singled out by Congress as warranting special enhancement, but for which a lesser enhancement sanction than that imposed by § 924(c) had been authorized."
1543, cert. denied, 484 U. S. 979 (1987), and endorsed by the Court today, appeared in any reported judicial opinion.
At oral argument, the Government was unable to tell us how the "second or subsequent conviction" language of § 924(c) was construed by Government prosecutors prior to 1987, when Rawlings was decided. Tr. of Oral Arg. 27-28. It seems to me, however, quite likely that until 1987, the Government read the "second or subsequent" section of § 924(c) as a straightforward recidivist provision, just as Justice Stewart did in 1980. That reading certainly would comport with the Government's submissions to this Court in Simpson, supra, and Busic, supra, both of which describe the "second or subsequent conviction" provision in terms of recidivism.5 It would be consistent, too, with the reported cases involving § 924(c) sentencing, which make clear that the district courts were routinely imposing consecutive 5-year sentences when defendants were convicted of two separate offenses under § 924(c), apparently without objection from the Government that the second conviction warranted a longer sentence. See, e. g., United States v. Henry, 878 F.2d 937, 938 (CA6 1989); United States v. Jim, 865 F.2d 211, 212 (CA9), cert. denied, 493 U. S. 827 (1989); United States v. Fontanilla, 849 F.2d 1257, 1258 (CA9 1988); United States v. Chalan, 812 F.2d 1302, 1315 (CAlO 1987), cert. denied, 488 U. S. 983 (1988).
5 See Brief for United States in Busic v. United States, O. T. 1979, No. 78-6020, p. 19 ("Section 924(c) establishes mandatory minimum sentences, requires increasingly severe sentences for recidivists (without possibility of suspension or probation), and prohibits concurrent sentencing"); Brief for United States in Simpson v. United States, O. T. 1977, No. 76-5761, pp. 13-14 (discussing application of sentencing provisions "[i]f the gunwielding bank robber were a recidivist").
after an earlier conviction has become final; it is, in short, a recidivist provision. When that sensible construction is adopted, of course, the grammatical difficulties and the potential for prosecutorial manipulation that trouble the majority, see ante, at 131-134, are avoided entirely. See United States v. Neal, 976 F.2d 601, 603 (CA9 1992) (Fletcher, J., dissenting) ("common-sense reading of § 924(c)" as recidivist statute).
Even assuming, however, that the meaning of § 924(c)'s repeat offender provision is not as obvious as I think, its history belies the notion that its text admits of only one reading, that adopted in Rawlings. Surely it cannot be argued that a construction surfacing for the first time 19 years after enactment is the only available construction. Indeed, even after Rawlings, there is no consensus on this point; some courts-and some Government prosecutors-continue to apply § 924(c) as a recidivist statute.6 In United States v. Nabors, 901 F.2d 1351 (CA6), cert. denied, 498 U. S. 871 (1990), for instance, a case decided in 1990, the Court of Appeals purported to follow Rawlings, but actually affirmed imposition of two 5-year sentences for convictions on two distinct § 924(c) violations.7 Similarly, in United States v.
6Dismissing these cases, as well as those decided pre-Rawlings, as a long line of "erroneous lower-court decisions," ante, at 135, cannot explain why 19 years passed before the correct interpretation of a statute of "utterly no ambiguity," ibid., made its first reported appearance.
''While § 924(c)(1) is, at best, hard to follow in simple English, we concur with the reasoning in Rawlings that two distinct violations of the statute trigger the subsequent sentence enhancement provisions of § 924(c)(1). Thus, the commission of two violations of § 924(c)(1) would result in a fiveyear consecutive sentence for the first conviction and a ten-year consecutive sentence for the second § 924(c)(1) conviction. However, because of the complexity of this issue, we find the district court's failure to sentence Nabors to a ten-year consecutive sentence for his second § 924(c)(1) conviction not clearly erroneous." United States v. Nabors, 901 F. 2d, at 1358-1359.
8"The 1988 amendment raised the penalty for repeat violators of the statute to twenty years. In the version that was in effect at the time of the present crimes, the penalty for repeat violators was ten years. Arguably, the district judge should have sentenced appellant to one five-year and two ten-year consecutive terms of imprisonment for his convictions under Counts V through VII. However, since the United States has not counter-appealed on this point, we will not address it." United States v. Luskin, 926 F. 2d, at 374, n. 2.
1358] said that '§ 924(c)(1) is, at best, hard to follow in simple English ... ' With Mr. Godwin in front of me, I decline to hold him to a higher test than one found difficult by appellate court judges." United States v. Godwin, 758 F. Supp. 281, 283 (ED Pa. 1991).
9 The Court also suggests that use of the word "conviction," rather than "offense," distinguishes this statute from the repeat offender provisions discussed in Gonzalez v. United States, 224 F.2d 431 (CA1 1955), supra, at 138-139. Of course, the majority's textualist approach would lead to the same result if § 924(c)'s enhancement were reserved for "second or subsequent offenses"; At the time of sentencing for two violations committed on separate dates, one violation is "second or subsequent" to the other, and the conviction itself always will establish that two "offenses" have indeed been committed. See ante, at 135.
It is true, as the Court points out in passionate defense of its reading, that the words "offense" and "conviction" are not identical. What is at issue here, however, is not whether the terms mean the same thing in all usages, but whether they mean the same thing when they are used by Congress to identify the class of repeat offenders subject to enhanced sentences. Cf. ante, at 131-132 (context gives meaning to word "conviction"). If there is any difference between the terms as so used, it only lends further support to the conclusion that § 924(c) is a recidivist provision. As discussed above, repeat offender statutes couched in terms of "offense" were understood at the time of § 924(c)'s enactment to identify offenses committed after a prior conviction. See supra, at 138-139. A fortiori, "use of the word 'conviction' rather than wording describing the offense suggests an intent to reach recidivists who repeat conduct after conviction in the judicial system for prior offenses." United States v. Godwin, 758 F. Supp. 281, 283 (ED Pa. 1991).
statute, see supra, evaporates if we assume that sentencing judges are gifted with enough common sense to understand that they may, upon entry of a second final judgment, enhance the sentence incorporated therein. In any event, the majority's conclusion that a "second or subsequent conviction" is a finding of guilt leaves unanswered the question dispositive here: whether that second conviction (finding of guilt or entry of judgment) is subject to enhancement if it is not for an offense committed after a prior conviction has become final.
The Court finds additional support for its conclusion in the fact that at least some contrary readings of § 924(c) would "give a prosecutor unreviewable discretion either to impose or to waive the enhanced sentencing provisions" through the manner in which she charged a crime or crimes. Ante, at 133. I have already pointed out that the majority's particular concern is not implicated if § 924(c) is treated as a straightforward recidivist provision, supra, at 142-143; under that construction, a defendant who commits a second § 924(c) offense before trial on the first would not be eligible for sentence enhancement whether the two counts were tried separately or together. I would add only that the Court's alternative reading does not solve the broader problem it identifies. As the Government concedes, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 31-32, prosecutors will continue to enjoy considerable discretion in deciding how many § 924(c) offenses to charge in relation to a criminal transaction or series of transactions. An armed defendant who robs a bank and, at the same time, assaults a guard, may be subject to one or two § 924(c) charges; the choice is the prosecutor's, and the consequence, under today's holding, the difference between a 5- and a 15year enhancement. Cf. United States v. Jim, 865 F. 2d, at 212 (defendant charged with three counts under § 924(c), each arising from the same criminal episode); United States v. Fontanilla, 849 F. 2d, at 1257 (same).
Section 924(c) of the Criminal Code mandates an enhanced, 20-year sentence for repeat offenders. Between 1968, when the statute was enacted, and 1987, when textualism replaced common sense in its interpretation, the bench and bar seem to have understood that this provision applied to defendants who, having once been convicted under § 924(c), "failed to learn their lessons from the initial punishment" and committed a repeat offense. See United States v. Neal, 976 F. 2d, at 603 (Fletcher, J., dissenting).lO The contrary reading adopted by the Court today, driven by an elaborate exercise in sentence parsing, is responsive to neither historical context nor common sense. Because I cannot agree with this unwarranted and unnecessarily harsh construction of § 924(c), the meaning of which should, at a minimum, be informed by the rule of lenity, I respectfully dissent.
10 "However, punishing first offenders with twenty-five-year sentences does not deter crime as much as it ruins lives. If, after arrest and conviction, a first offender is warned that he will face a mandatory twenty-year sentence if he commits the same crime again, then the offender will know of the penalty. Having already served at least five years in prison, he will have a strong incentive to stay out of trouble. Discouraging recidivism by people who have already been in prison and been released serves a far more valuable purpose than deterring offenders who have yet to be arrested and have no knowledge of the law's penalties." United States v. Jones, 965 F.2d 1507, 1521 (CAS 1992) (internal citation omitted).

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