Cite as: 508 U. S. 129 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
1543, cert. denied, 484 U. S. 979 (1987), and endorsed by the Court today, appeared in any reported judicial opinion.
At oral argument, the Government was unable to tell us how the "second or subsequent conviction" language of § 924(c) was construed by Government prosecutors prior to 1987, when Rawlings was decided. Tr. of Oral Arg. 27-28. It seems to me, however, quite likely that until 1987, the Government read the "second or subsequent" section of § 924(c) as a straightforward recidivist provision, just as Justice Stewart did in 1980. That reading certainly would comport with the Government's submissions to this Court in Simpson, supra, and Busic, supra, both of which describe the "second or subsequent conviction" provision in terms of recidivism.5 It would be consistent, too, with the reported cases involving § 924(c) sentencing, which make clear that the district courts were routinely imposing consecutive 5-year sentences when defendants were convicted of two separate offenses under § 924(c), apparently without objection from the Government that the second conviction warranted a longer sentence. See, e. g., United States v. Henry, 878 F. 2d 937, 938 (CA6 1989); United States v. Jim, 865 F. 2d 211, 212 (CA9), cert. denied, 493 U. S. 827 (1989); United States v. Fontanilla, 849 F. 2d 1257, 1258 (CA9 1988); United States v. Chalan, 812 F. 2d 1302, 1315 (CA10 1987), cert. denied, 488 U. S. 983 (1988).
In light of this history, I would find no ambiguity in the
phrase "subsequent conviction" as used in § 924(c). Like its many counterparts in the Criminal Code, the phrase clearly is intended to refer to a conviction for an offense committed
5 See Brief for United States in Busic v. United States, O. T. 1979, No. 78-6020, p. 19 ("Section 924(c) establishes mandatory minimum sentences, requires increasingly severe sentences for recidivists (without possibility of suspension or probation), and prohibits concurrent sentencing"); Brief for United States in Simpson v. United States, O. T. 1977, No. 76-5761, pp. 13-14 (discussing application of sentencing provisions "[i]f the gun-wielding bank robber were a recidivist").
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