## Facts

- Levon Dean, Jr. and his brother committed two robberies of drug dealers.
- During each robbery, Dean’s brother used a firearm to threaten and assault victims while Dean searched for valuables.
- Dean was convicted of robbery offenses and two counts under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
- Section 924(c) required a 5-year mandatory minimum for the first conviction and an additional 25-year mandatory minimum for the second conviction, to run consecutively to any other imprisonment.
- Dean faced a mandatory 30-year consecutive term on the § 924(c) counts, plus sentences on the underlying robbery counts.
- At sentencing, Dean asked the district court to impose minimal sentences on the robbery counts in light of the mandatory 30-year § 924(c) term.
- The district judge indicated he would have considered doing so but believed § 924(c) prevented reducing the predicate-offense sentences to account for the consecutive mandatory minimum.
- The Eighth Circuit affirmed based on precedent that treated § 924(c) as barring consideration of its mandatory minimum when sentencing the predicate offenses.

## Issues

1. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) prevents a sentencing court from considering the statute’s mandatory consecutive minimum when determining the appropriate sentence for the predicate offense under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a).

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously reversed.
- The Court held that § 924(c) does not prevent a sentencing court from considering the mandatory minimum imposed under § 924(c) when calculating an appropriate sentence for the predicate offense.
- The Court concluded the district court erred in believing it lacked discretion to reduce the predicate-offense sentences in light of the mandatory consecutive § 924(c) term.
- The case was remanded for resentencing consistent with the Court’s interpretation.

## Legal Principles

- Sentencing courts generally may consider the totality of punishment in a multicount case when applying the factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) to each count.
- Section 924(c) requires a mandatory term “in addition to” punishment for the predicate crime and requires consecutive service, but it does not prescribe the length of the predicate-offense sentence or restrict what the court may consider in setting it.
- Absent a clear statutory limitation, courts retain ordinary discretion under § 3553(a) to impose a predicate-offense sentence that reflects the presence of a consecutive mandatory minimum on another count.

## Conclusion

The Court ruled that § 924(c)’s mandatory consecutive minimum does not restrict a judge’s ability to weigh that required term when setting the sentence for the underlying offense, preserving usual § 3553(a) discretion in multicount sentencing.


Dean v. United States, 581 U.S. 62 (2017)