United States v. O'Brien (2010)

United States v. O'Brien
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided May 24, 2010
Full case name	United States v. O'Brien
Citations	560 U.S. 218 (more)
Holding
When used by the prosecution to obtain a mandatory minimum sentence, the fact that a firearm was a machine gun is an element to be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, not a sentencing factor to be proved to the judge at sentencing.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, J., joined by Roberts, Stevens, Scalia, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor
Concurrence	Stevens
Concurrence	Thomas (in judgment)

United States v. O'Brien, 560 U.S. 218 (2010), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that, when used by the prosecution to obtain a mandatory minimum sentence, the fact that a firearm was a machine gun is an element to be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, not a sentencing factor to be proved to the judge at sentencing.^[1][2]

O'Brien and Burgess each carried a firearm during an attempted robbery. Count three of their indictment charged them with using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, which carries a mandatory minimum 5-year prison term under 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(1)(A)(i). Count four alleged use of a machine gun (here, a pistol that authorities believed operated as a fully automatic firearm) in furtherance of that crime, which carries a 30-year mandatory-minimum term under §924(c)(1)(B)(ii). The government moved to dismiss the fourth count on the basis that it could not establish the count beyond a reasonable doubt, but it maintained that §924(c)(1)(B)(ii)'s machine gun provision was a sentencing enhancement to be determined by the federal District Court upon a conviction on count three. The court dismissed count four and rejected the Government's sentencing-enhancement position. The defendants then pleaded guilty to the remaining counts. The court sentenced O'Brien to a 102-month term and Burgess to an 84-month term for their §924(c) convictions. In affirming the District Court's §924(c)(1)(B)(ii) ruling, the First Circuit Court of Appeals looked primarily to Castillo v. United States, 530 U. S. 120, which held that the machine-gun provision in an earlier version of §924(c) constituted an element of an offense, not a sentencing factor. The court found that Castillo was "close to binding," absent clearer or more dramatic changes than those made by Congress's 1998 amendment of §924(c) or a clearer legislative history.

The Supreme Court issued an opinion on May 24, 2010.^[1]

• Text of United States v. O'Brien, 560 U.S. 218 (2010) is available from: Justia

This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain.