U.S. v. JOHNSON, 2009 WL 2767048 (11th Cir. September 2, 2009)

The defendant challenged his supervised release sentence revocation on the ground that he had completed his three years of supervised release prior to the date of the supervised release revocation petition. Defendant had transferred to a Virginia state facility, on detainer, to answer pending criminal charges, after release from serving his federal sentence. The defendant remained in state custody until he plead guilty in Virginia, was sentenced, released, and credited for time served under the detainer. Subsequently, the defendant was arrested for fraud and forgery charges and Probation filed a petition to revoke his supervised release. At the revocation hearing, the defendant argued that the district court lacked jurisdiction because his three year supervised release term had already expired and the time in custody in Virginia did not toll that term. The district court disagreed and revoked his supervised release. On appeal, the defendant argued that his three year supervised release term began running when he was released from federal prison. In its decision, the Eleventh Circuit relied on a Supreme Court decision in 2000 which held that “[a] term of supervised release does not run during any period in which the person is imprisoned in connection with a conviction for a Federal, State, or local crime unless the imprisonment is for a period of less than 30 consecutive days.” The Court found the defendant’s Virginia sentencing order mandated two years imprisonment, which was more than 30 days. As such, the term of supervised release did not run during the time he was in state custody.