Thomas Lee Deal v. United States (508 U.S. 129)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 17, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 508 U.S. 129 · 113 S. Ct. 1993
- Decided
- May 17, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. Between January and April 1990, petitioner committed six bank robberies on six different dates in the Houston, Texas, area. In each robbery, he used a gun. Petitioner was convicted of six counts of bank robbery, 18 U. S. C. §§ 2118(a) and (d), six counts of carrying and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, § 924(c), and one count of being a felon in possession of firearms, § 922(g). Title 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1) (1988 ed., Supp. III) provides: “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 ease…
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