Castillo v. United States

• Citation: 530 U.S. 120,147 L.Ed.2d 94,120 S.Ct. 2090
• Decision Date: 05 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-658,99-658
• Parties: JAIME CASTILLO, ET AL. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: United States Supreme Court

530 U.S. 120

120 S. Ct. 2090

147 L. Ed. 2d 94

JAIME CASTILLO, ET AL. v. UNITED STATES

No. 99-658

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

April 24, 2000, Argued

June 5, 2000, Decided

On remand at, Remanded by United States v. Castillo, 220 F.3d 648, 2000 U.S. App.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT.

United States v. Castillo, 179 F.3d 321, 1999 U.S. App (5th Cir. Tex., 1999)

179 F.3d 321, reversed and remanded.

BREYER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and STEVENS, O'CONNOR, KENNEDY, SOUTER, THOMAS, and GINSBURG, JJ., joined, and in which SCALIA, J., joined except as to point Fourth of Part II.

JUSTICE BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. *

In this case we once again decide whether words in a federal criminal statute create offense elements (determined by a jury) or sentencing factors (determined by a judge). See Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 143 L. Ed. 2d 311, 119 S. Ct. 1215 (1999); Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 140 L. Ed. 2d 350, 118 S. Ct. 1219 (1998). The statute in question, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (1988 ed., Supp. V), prohibits the use or carrying of a "firearm" in relation to a crime of violence, and increases the penalty dramatically when the weapon used or carried is, for example, a "machinegun." We conclude that the statute uses the word "machinegun" (and similar words) to state an element of a separate offense.

I

Petitioners are members of the Branch-Davidian religious sect and are among those who were involved in a violent confrontation with federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms near Waco, Texas, in 1993. The case before us arises out of an indictment alleging that, among other things, petitioners conspired to murder federal officers. At the time of petitioners' trial, the criminal statute at issue (reprinted in its entirety in the Appendix, infra) read in relevant part:

"(c)(1) 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, and if the firearm is a short barreled rifle [or a] short-barreled shotgun to imprisonment for ten years, and if the firearm is a machinegun, or a destructive device, or is equipped with a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, to imprisonment for thirty years." 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) (1988 ed., Supp. V).

A jury determined that petitioners had violated this section by, in the words of the trial judge's instruction, "knowingly using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to" the commission of a crime of violence. App. 29. At sentencing, the judge found that the "firearms" at issue included certain machineguns (many equipped with silencers) and handgrenades that the defendants actually or constructively had possessed. United States v. Branch, Crim. No. W-93-CR-046 (WD Tex., June 21, 1994), reprinted in App. to Pet. for Cert. 119a, 124a-125a. The judge then imposed the statute's mandatory 30-year prison sentence. Id. at 134a.

Petitioners appealed. Meanwhile, this Court decided that the word "use" in § 924(c)(1) requires evidence of more than "mere possession." Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 143, 133 L. Ed. 2d 472, 116 S. Ct. 501 (1995). The Court of Appeals subsequently held that our decision in Bailey necessitated a remand of the case to determine whether, in Bailey's stronger sense of "use," petitioners had used "machineguns and other enhancing weapons." United States v. Branch, 91 F.3d 699, 740-741 (CA5 1996). The court also concluded that statutory words such as "machinegun" create sentencing factors, i.e., factors that enhance a sentence, not elements of a separate crime. 91 F.3d at 738-740. Hence, it specified that the jury "was not required" to determine whether petitioners used or carried "machineguns" or other enhanced weapons. 91 F.3d at 740. Rather, it wrote that "should the district court find on remand that members of the conspiracy actively employed machineguns, it is free to reimpose the 30-year sentence." 91 F.3d at 740-741 (emphasis added). On remand, the District Court resentenced petitioners to 30-year terms of imprisonment based on its weapons-related findings. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 119a. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 179 F.3d 321 (CA5 1999).

The Federal Courts of Appeals have different views as to whether the statutory word "machinegun" (and similar words appearing in the version of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) here at issue) refers to a sentencing factor to be assessed by the trial court or creates a new substantive crime to be determined by the jury. Compare, e.g., United States v. Alborola-Rodriguez, 153 F.3d 1269, 1272 (CA11 1998) (sentencing factor), with United States v. Alerta, 96 F.3d 1230, 1235 (CA9 1996) (element). We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict.

II

The question before us is whether Congress intended the statutory references to particular firearm types in § 924(c)(1) to define a separate crime or simply to authorize an enhanced penalty. If the former, the indictment must identify the firearm type and a jury must find that element proved beyond a reasonable doubt. If the latter, the matter need not be tried before a jury but may be left for the sentencing judge to decide. As petitioners note, our decision in Jones concluded, in a similar situation, that treating facts that lead to an increase in the maximum sentence as a sentencing factor would give rise to significant constitutional questions. See Jones, 526 U.S. at 239-252. Here, even apart from the doctrine of constitutional doubt, our consideration of § 924(c)(1)'s language, structure, context, history, and such other factors as typically help courts determine a statute's objectives, leads us to conclude that the relevant words create a separate substantive crime.

First, while the statute's literal language, taken alone, appears neutral, its overall structure strongly favors the "new crime" interpretation. The relevant statutory sentence says: "Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence . . .,uses or carries a firearm, shall . . . be sentenced to imprisonment for five years, and if the firearm is a . . . machinegun, . . . to imprisonment for thirty years." § 924(c)(1). On the one hand, one could read the words "during and in relation to a crime of violence" and "uses or carries a firearm" as setting forth two basic elements of the offense, and the subsequent "machinegun" phrase as merely increasing a defendant's sentence in relevant cases. But, with equal ease, by emphasizing the phrase "if the firearm is a . . . , " one can read the language as simply substituting the word "machinegun" for the initial word "firearm"; thereby both incorporating by reference the initial phrases that relate the basic elements of the crime and creating a different crime containing one new element, i.e., the use or carrying of a "machinegun" during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The statute's structure clarifies any ambiguity inherent in its literal language. The first part of the opening sentence clearly and indisputably establishes the elements of the basic federal offense of using or carrying a gun during and in relation to a crime of violence. See United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U.S. 275, 280, 143 L. Ed. 2d 388, 119 S. Ct. 1239 (1999). Congress placed the element "uses or carries a firearm" and the word "machinegun" in a single sentence, not broken up with dashes or separated into subsections. Cf. Jones, 526 U.S. at 232-233 (noting that the structure of the carjacking statute -- a "principal paragraph" followed by "numbered subsections" -- makes it "look" as though the statute sets forth sentencing factors). The next three sentences of § 924(c)(1) (which appear after the sentence quoted above (see Appendix, infra)) refer directly to sentencing: the first to recidivism, the second to concurrent sentences, the third to parole. These structural features strongly suggest that the basic job of the entire first sentence is the definition of crimes and the role of the remaining three is the description of factors (such as recidivism) that ordinarily pertain only to sentencing.

We concede that there are two other structural circumstances that suggest a contrary interpretation. The title of the entirety of § 924 is "Penalties"; and in 1998 Congress reenacted § 924(c)(1), separating different parts of the first sentence (and others) into different subsections, see Pub. L. 105-386, § 1(a)(1), 112 Stat. 3469. In this case, however, the section's title cannot help, for Congress already has determined that at least some portion of § 924, including § 924(c) itself, creates, not penalty enhancements, but entirely new crimes. See S. Rep. No. 98-225, pp. 312-314 (1984) ("Section 924(c) sets out an offense distinct from the underlying felony and is not simply a penalty provision"); see also Busic v. United States, 446 U.S. 398, 404, 64 L. Ed. 2d 381, 100 S. Ct. 1747 (1980); Simpson v. United States, 435 U.S. 6, 10, 55 L. Ed. 2d 70, 98 S. Ct. 909 (1978). The title alone does not tell us which are which. Nor can a new postenactment statutory restructuring help us here to determine what Congress intended at the time it enacted the earlier statutory provision that governs this case. See Almendarez-Torres, 523 U.S. at 237 (amendments that, among other things, neither "declare the meaning of earlier law" nor "seek to clarify an earlier enacted general term" fail to provide interpretive guidance).

[2] Second, we cannot say that courts have typically or traditionally used firearm types (such as "shotgun" or "machinegun") as sentencing factors, at least not in respect to an underlying "use or carry" crime. See Jones, supra, at 234 ("Statutory drafting occurs against a backdrop . . . of traditional treatment of certain categories of important facts"); see also Almendarez-Torres, ...