United States v. Brian Marsh, 829 F.3d 705

Brian D. Marsh was sentenced in 2004 to 63 months imprisonment plus 4 years supervised release; he completed imprisonment May 9, 2008, so supervised release would expire May 8, 2012.
Marsh was indicted Aug. 11, 2011, arrested Aug. 17, 2011, detained pretrial, later pled guilty June 19, 2012, and on Sept. 20, 2012 was sentenced to 150 months with credit for time served and 5 years supervised release.
The later conviction demonstrated Marsh violated his earlier supervised-release condition (no new crimes), so the first-sentencing court held a revocation hearing Sept. 21, 2012 and revoked supervised release, imposing 36 months consecutive to the new sentence.
Marsh appealed, arguing (1) the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke because his supervised-release term had expired May 8, 2012, and (2) the revocation sentencing was procedurally flawed; the Court of Appeals resolved only the jurisdictional question.
The government argued 18 U.S.C. § 3624(e) tolled the supervised-release term during Marsh’s pretrial detention because he was later convicted and received credit for time served; Marsh argued tolling did not apply to pretrial detention.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Does 18 U.S.C. § 3624(e) toll supervised-release during pretrial detention later resulting in conviction and credit?	Gov: Yes — pretrial detention counts as "imprisoned in connection with a conviction" if defendant is later convicted and gets credit; tolling extended Marsh’s term past May 8, 2012.	Marsh: No — statute does not toll for pretrial detention; supervised-release expired May 8, 2012, so court lacked jurisdiction to revoke.	Court held § 3624(e) does not toll during pretrial detention; present-tense "is imprisoned" requires imprisonment be contemporaneously connected to a conviction, so the district court lacked jurisdiction and revocation sentence vacated.

United States v. Morales-Alejo, 193 F.3d 1102 (9th Cir. 1999) (pretrial detention does not toll § 3624(e))
United States v. Goins, 516 F.3d 416 (6th Cir. 2008) (pretrial detention tolls § 3624(e) if later credited after conviction)
United States v. Ide, 624 F.3d 666 (4th Cir. 2010) (adopts forward- and backward-looking tolling; pretrial detention can toll)
United States v. Molina-Gazca, 571 F.3d 470 (5th Cir. 2009) (pretrial detention can toll § 3624(e))
United States v. Johnson, 581 F.3d 1310 (11th Cir. 2009) (same)
Carr v. United States, 560 U.S. 438 (2010) (verb tense matters in statutory construction)
United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992) (Congress’ use of verb tense is significant)
Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel. Kirk, 563 U.S. 401 (2011) (statutory text controls)
Lamie v. U.S. Trustee, 540 U.S. 526 (2004) (avoid surplusage in statutory interpretation)