Opinion ID: 795530
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Multiple Firearm Sentences for Multiple Predicate Offenses

Text: 60 Khan and Chapman next argue that it was error for the district court to sentence them separately for each separate 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) firearms offense because those offenses all related to the same criminal episode. Under our precedent, this argument fails. 61 This court has previously held, based on the plain language of the statute, that convictions for separate crimes of violence can lead to multiple sentences under § 924(c). United States v. Luskin, 926 F.2d 372, 376-77 (4th Cir.1991). There is no ambiguity in section 924(c). It states that whenever a person commits a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime and uses or carries a gun, the person shall be sentenced to a prison term that runs consecutive to the person's sentence for the underlying crime of violence or drug trafficking crime and consecutive to all other sentences. Id. at 376. As long as the imposition of multiple § 924(c) sentences does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause, we will uphold those sentences in accordance with the plain language of the statute. 9 Id. 62 In order to determine whether consecutive § 924(c) sentences violate the Double Jeopardy Clause, [t]he court must concern itself with whether the underlying crimes of violence supporting the § 924(c) charges are duplicative under a double jeopardy analysis. As long as the underlying crimes are not identical under the Blockburger analysis, 10 then consecutive § 924(c) sentences are permissible. Id. 63 Defendants concede that each of the underlying crimes of violence in this case supporting the § 924(c) charges may be a separate offense for purposes of a Blockburger analysis, and, accordingly, that they do not run afoul of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Appellants' Reply Br. at 46. They, however, attempt to distinguish Luskin, arguing that both the indictment and the district court opinion listed all of the predicate counts on the same general factual allegation. That distinction, however, emphasizes an irrelevancy. The plain language of the statute does not speak of general factual allegations or a course of conduct. Instead, it states that a defendant shall be given additional sentences for each second or subsequent conviction. 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(C); see also Deal v. United States, 508 U.S. 129, 135, 113 S.Ct. 1993, 124 L.Ed.2d 44 (1993) (noting that there is utterly no ambiguity in the meaning of the word conviction as used in § 924(c)). In other words, there is no housekeeping requirement under the statute or Luskin obliging either the government or the district court to present the facts in such a manner as to align the use of a particular firearm with a particular predicate offense. The fact that the district court chose to present the facts of this case as one list of factual allegations does not mean that the crimes that derived from those factual allegations were all identical as a matter of law. 11 64