U.S. v. Knight

• Citation: 580 F.3d 933
• Decision Date: 02 September 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-30372.,08-30372.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Douglas James KNIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

580 F.3d 933

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Douglas James KNIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 08-30372.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 6, 2009.

Filed September 2, 2009.

Steven C. Haddon, Haddon Law Office, Helena, MT, for the defendant-appellant (argued and on the briefs).

Paulette L. Stewart, Assistant United States Attorney (argued and on the briefs), William W. Mercer, United States Attorney, and Eric B. Wolff, Assistant United States Attorney (on the briefs), Helena, MT, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Charles C. Lovell, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 6:04-CR-00002-CCL.

Before: HARRY PREGERSON, PAMELA ANN RYMER and A. WALLACE TASHIMA, Circuit Judges.

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge:

Douglas Knight ("Knight") appeals his sentence of twenty-four months imprisonment and twelve months supervised release, imposed after the district court revoked Knight's supervised release for a third time. Revocation of a defendant's supervised release is governed by 18 U.S.C. § 3583. Congress amended § 3583 in 2003. See Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003 ("PROTECT Act"), Pub.L. 108-21, § 101, 117 Stat. 650, 651. The 2003 Amendment to § 3583 altered the portions of § 3583 that address the maximum terms of imprisonment and supervised release that can be imposed following revocation of a defendant's supervised release. Because of the 2003 Amendment, this case presents us with two issues of first impression in this circuit:

(1) Whether under the amended version of § 3583(e)(3) the district court must reduce the maximum term of imprisonment to be imposed upon revocation of a defendant's supervised release by the aggregate length of any and all terms of imprisonment imposed upon revocation of supervised release.

(2) Whether under the amended version of § 3583(h) the district court must reduce the maximum term of supervised release to be imposed upon revocation of a defendant's supervised release by the aggregate length of any and all terms of imprisonment imposed upon revocation of supervised release.

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review questions of statutory interpretation de novo. United States v. Ray, 484 F.3d 1168, 1170 (9th Cir.2007). We affirm Knight's sentence of twenty-four months imprisonment, but we reverse Knight's sentence of twelve months supervised release, and vacate and remand for resentencing.

I.

On April 27, 2004, Knight pleaded guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(j) (Possession of Stolen Firearms).¹ Knight was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment and thirty-six months supervised release.²

On October 6, 2005, Knight began serving his term of supervised release. On February 16, 2006, the district court revoked Knight's supervised release for the first time (the "First Revocation"). The district court sentenced Knight to nine months imprisonment and twenty-seven months supervised release.³

On October 14, 2006, Knight began to serve his second term of supervised release. On October 3, 2007, the district court revoked Knight's supervised release for the second time (the "Second Revocation"). The district court sentenced Knight to nine months imprisonment and eighteen months supervised release.

On May 5, 2008, Knight began serving his third term of supervised release. On September 19, 2008, the district court revoked Knight's supervised release for a third time (the "Third Revocation"). The district court sentenced Knight to the statutory maximum of twenty-four months imprisonment and twelve months supervised release.⁴ Knight objected to the district court's sentence on the grounds that the district court improperly calculated the statutory maximum terms of imprisonment and supervised release. This timely appeal followed.

II.

The first issue we must determine is whether under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3), as amended by Congress in 2003, the maximum term of imprisonment that can be imposed on a defendant following revocation of his supervised release must be reduced by the aggregate length of any and all terms of imprisonment imposed upon revocation of supervised release.

Knight argues that when calculating the maximum term of imprisonment to be imposed as a result of his Third Revocation, the district court was required to reduce the twenty-four month statutory maximum term of imprisonment by eighteen months (a nine month term of imprisonment for the First Revocation and a nine month term of imprisonment for the Second Revocation). Under Knight's calculation, the district court would therefore be precluded from imposing a term of imprisonment exceeding six months — twenty-four months minus eighteen months. We disagree and affirm the twenty-four month term of imprisonment.

A.

Section 3583(e)(3) governs the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed when the district court revokes a defendant's supervised release. Section 3583(e)(3), as amended, states that the court may:

revoke a term of supervised release, and require the defendant to serve in prison all or part of the term of supervised release authorized by statute for the offense that resulted in such term of supervised release without credit for time previously served on postrelease supervision, if the court, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure applicable to revocation of probation or supervised release, finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant violated a condition of supervised release, except that a defendant whose term is revoked under this paragraph may not be required to serve on any such revocation more than 5 years in prison if the offense that resulted in the term of supervised release is a class A felony, more than 3 years in prison if such offense is a class B felony, more than 2 years in prison if such offense is a class C or D felony, or more than one year in any other case.

18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3) (emphasis added).⁵ Under § 3583(e)(3) the maximum term of imprisonment that Knight could receive upon revocation of his supervised release was two years.⁶ Section 3583(e)(3) is, however, silent regarding whether the district court is required to subtract the aggregate length of prior imprisonment terms imposed upon revocation of supervised release when calculating the statutory maximum for subsequent revocations.

B.

As previously noted, Congress amended § 3583(e)(3) in 2003. See Pub.L. 108-21, § 101. To properly interpret the amended version of § 3583(e)(3) it is important to consider how circuit courts interpreted the statute prior to the 2003 Amendment.

Prior to the 2003 Amendment, the circuit courts were in agreement that, when calculating the maximum term of imprisonment to impose upon revocation of a defendant's supervised release, the district court was required to subtract the aggregate of length of any and all terms of revocation imprisonment from the statutory maximum. See, e.g., United States v. Jackson, 329 F.3d 406, 407-08 (5th Cir.2003) (collecting cases that required aggregation prior to the 2003 Amendment).

The pre-Amendment rule requiring aggregation of prior imprisonment when calculating the maximum term of imprisonment or supervised release to be imposed upon multiple revocations was based, in large part, on the legislative history of the 1994 Amendment. See Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub.L. No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796 (1994). For example, in United States v. Tapia-Escalera, 356 F.3d 181, 187 (1st Cir.2004), the First Circuit noted that the "1991 Senate Report discussing virtually the same language adopted in 1994 makes clear that the cap is to apply to the aggregate term of all imprisonments for release condition violations." The Senate Report states that

in the case of a Class C felony for which the maximum supervised release term is three years, a defendant who is revoked and reimprisoned for 18 months could be ordered to serve as much as 18 additional months on supervised release (36-month maximum term of supervised release-18 months imprisonment = 18 months possible re-release supervision). If the same defendant was again revoked, he could be reimprisoned for not exceeding six months (24-month cap-18 months previously-served imprisonment = 6 months allowable imprisonment) and if so imprisoned, could not thereafter be placed on supervision (because the two-year imprisonment cap would have been reached). Thus, under [the amendments], a defendant would always be credited for incarceration time against both the cap on reimprisonment and the maximum authorized period of supervised release.

137 Cong. Rec. S7772 (daily ed. June 13, 1991) (emphasis added).

C.

The 2003 Amendment, however, significantly altered the text of § 3583(e)(3). Indeed, it is clear that Congress intended to ensure that a district court is no longer required to reduce the maximum term of imprisonment to be imposed upon revocation by the aggregate length of prior revocation imprisonment terms.

In the 2003 Amendment, Congress added the phrase "on any such revocation" to § 3583(e)(3). Pub.L. 108-21, § 101, 117 Stat. 650, 651. Although the addition of the phrase "on any such revocation" was the only change to § 3583(e)(3), the impact of this revision is substantial. The amended language of § 3583(e)(3) now explicitly states that the statutory maximum term of imprisonment (in Knight's case twenty-four months) applies "on any such revocation." Accordingly, under the amended version of § 3583(e)(3) it is clear that defendants are not to be credited for prior terms of imprisonment imposed upon revocation of their supervised release.

Each of our sister circuits to address this issue has come to the same conclusion. See Tapia-Escalera, 356 F.3d at 188 ("Congress has altered the statute to adopt the government's position" that the statutory cap applies to each revocation); United...