Justices Are Leery of Sentence Mandate in Drug-Related Crime (1)

The US Supreme Court appears ready to side with a former drug trafficker in his challenge to a federal law requiring consecutive sentences for certain violent offenses.

Efrain Lora argues the mandatory five-year prison sentence he received for a drug-related gun charge should run concurrently with the 25-year sentence he received for drug conspiracy.

The case argued before the justices Tuesday raises a tricky question of statutory interpretation—whether a ban on concurrent sentences in one section of the criminal code for drug-related gun crimes applies when a defendant is sentenced and convicted under another section of the law.

Justice Brett ...