United States v. Smith, 6:21-cr-00014

Michael Bruce Smith pled guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to transport an undocumented alien, a Class C felony, and was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment and 3 years' supervised release.
After completing his prison sentence, Smith began his supervised release on January 20, 2021; the case was transferred to the Eastern District of Texas.
The government filed a petition to revoke Smith's supervised release, alleging violations including new drug possession offenses, positive drug tests, and failure to report law enforcement contact.
At the revocation hearing, Smith and the government agreed to a plea of “true” to one drug possession allegation and a recommended 6-month imprisonment with no further supervised release.
Smith had already spent time in custody related solely to the revocation proceeding, which both parties agreed should be credited toward his new sentence.
Smith requested to serve his sentence at FCI Seagoville.

Issue	Government's Argument	Smith's Argument	Held
Whether Smith violated supervised release by new crimes	Smith committed new controlled substance crimes	Admitted violation by pleading “true”	Smith guilty of Grade B violation, release revoked
Appropriate sentence after revocation	6 months' imprisonment, no new supervised release	Jointly recommended 6 months, no further supervision	6-month imprisonment imposed, no further supervision
Credit for prior custody time served	Credit time served specifically on revocation	Sought credit for June 1-19, Oct 25-present	Credit for relevant prior custody granted
Designation to preferred facility	No opposition to Smith's request	Requested FCI Seagoville	Bureau of Prisons recommendation granted

United States v. Brown, 122 Fed.Appx. 648 (Sentencing guidelines for revocation proceedings are advisory only)
United States v. Davis, 53 F.3d 638 (Supervised release revocation guidelines are non-binding)
United States v. Mathena, 23 F.3d 87 (Policy statements on revocation are advisory)