United States v. Brown
2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 9939
| 6th Cir. | 2011Background
- Brown was indicted in 1999 for armed bank robbery; pled guilty and received 78 months’ imprisonment and five years’ supervised release.
- In 2006 Brown pled guilty to escape and received 46 months’ imprisonment consecutive to the armed-robbery sentence, plus three years of supervised release to run concurrently.
- In 2009 Brown began serving the five-year supervised-release term and allegedly violated conditions in both the robbery and escape cases.
- The district court revoked Brown’s supervised release in both cases, sentencing seven months’ imprisonment (robbery case) with no further supervised release, and eight months’ imprisonment (escape case) with three years of supervised release.
- Counsel and the probation officer urged that any supervised-release term imposed upon revocation be reduced by the length of imprisonment already imposed.
- Brown appealed, challenging the length of the supervised-release term; the incarceration term challenge became moot once Brown completed his prison sentence.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| whether § 3583(h) requires deducting imprisonment from the new supervised release term | Brown | Brown | Yes; deduction required |
Key Cases Cited
- United States v. Vera, 542 F.3d 457 (5th Cir.2008) (recognizes deduction of imprisonment from max supervised release)
- United States v. Knight, 580 F.3d 933 (9th Cir.2009) (agrees on deduction principle for supervised release after revocation)
- United States v. Batti, 631 F.3d 371 (6th Cir.2011) (statutory interpretation; de novo review on questions of law)
- United States v. Shafer, 573 F.3d 267 (6th Cir.2009) (purpose of statutory interpretation framework)