United States v. Miguel Gonzales, Orlenis Hernandez-diaz and Mario Perez (520 U.S. 1)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 3, 1997 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 520 U.S. 1 · 117 S. Ct. 1032
- Decided
- March 3, 1997
- Term
- October Term 1996
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. We are asked to decide whether a federal court may direct that a prison sentence under 18 U.- S. C. § 924(c) run concurrently with a state-imposed sentence, even though § 924(c) provides that a sentence imposed under that statute “shall [not] . . . run concurrently with any other term of imprisonment.” We hold that it may not. I Respondents were arrested in a drug sting operation during which two of them pulled guns on undercover police officers. All three were convicted in New Mexico courts on charges arising from the holdup. The state courts sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 13 to 17 years. After they began to serve their state sentences, respondents were convicted in federal court of committing various drug offenses connected to the sting operation, and conspiring to do so, in violation of 21 U. S. C. §§841 and 846. They were also convicted of using firearms during and in relation to those drug trafficking crimes, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c). Respondents received sentences ranging from 120 to 147 months in prison, of which 60 months reflected the mandatory sentence required for their firearms convictions. Pursuant to § 924(c), the District Court ordered that the portion of respondents’ federal sentences attributable to the drug convictions run concurrently with their state sentences, with the remaining…
Excerpt of a 18,052-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.