In a unanimous decision yesterday, the Supreme Court held in Dean v. United States (No. 15-9260) that a district court may consider a consecutive mandatory minimum under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) when determining the appropriate sentence for the underlying predicate offense. As the Court explained, "[n]othing in § 924(c) restricts the authority conferred on sentencing courts by § 3553(a) and the related provisions to consider a sentence imposed under § 924(c) when calculating a just sentence for the predicate count." In other words, "nothing . . . prevents a district court from imposing a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence under § 924(c) and a one-day sentence for the predicate violent or drug trafficking crime, provided those terms run one after the other."
For Dean, who was 23 years old when he committed two robberies associated with the two § 924(c) convictions, "[t]hat he will not be released from prison until well after his fiftieth birthday because of the § 924(c) convictions surely bears on whether—in connection with his predicate crimes—still more incarceration is necessary to protect the public. Likewise, in considering 'the need for the sentence imposed . . . to afford adequate deterrence,' § 3553(a)(2)(B), the District Court could not reasonably ignore the deterrent effect of Dean's 30-year mandatory minimum."
The Eighth Circuit's contrary holding was reversed.