Dean v. United States
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 3, 2017 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- April 3, 2017
- Docket
- No. 15-9260
- Argued
- February 28, 2017
- Term
- October Term 2016
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts (wrote), Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Alito, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan
Oral argument transcript and advocates
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. Congress has made it a separate offense to use or possess a firearm in connection with a violent or drug trafficking crime. 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). That separate firearm offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for the first conviction and 25 years for a second. Those sentences must be in addition to and consecutive to the sentence for the underlying predicate offense. The question presented is whether, in calculating the sentence for the predicate offense, a judge must ignore the fact that the defendant will serve the mandatory minimums imposed under § 924(c). I Levon Dean, Jr., and his brother robbed a methamphetamine dealer in a Sioux City motel room. Less than two weeks later, they robbed another drug dealer at his home. During each robbery, Dean's brother threatened the victim with a modified semiautomatic rifle, later using that rifle to club the victim on the head. Dean, meanwhile, ransacked the area for drugs, money, and other valuables. A federal grand jury returned a multicount indictment charging Dean and his brother with a host of crimes related to the two robberies. Following a joint trial, a jury convicted Dean of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of robbery, and one count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. He was also convicted of two counts of possessing and…
Excerpt of a 14,211-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.