Opinion ID: 1238399
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Arhebamen's 21-month tax-fraud sentence

Text: Arhebamen had completed his 21-month sentence based on his guilty plea to tax fraud long before he was resentenced to that same term in 2005. The corresponding one-year term of supervised release is still pending, however, because Arhebamen is currently serving the 152-month sentence on his second conviction. Only the one-year term of supervised release saves his appeal in the first case from mootness. See United States v. Maken, 510 F.3d 654, 656 n. 3 (6th Cir. 2007) (noting that even if the relevant term of incarceration has been served, an appeal of a sentence is not moot so long as the appeal potentially implicates the length of the ... supervised release term. (internal quotation marks omitted)); United States v. Lewis, 166 Fed.Appx. 193, 195 (6th Cir. 2006) (holding that, where the appellant had completed his custodial sentence, any challenge to that portion of the sentence was moot). Arhebamen argues that we should remand the case for reconsideration of the one-year term of supervised-release because the district court allegedly treated that portion of the sentence as mandatory. When Arhebamen originally received his sentence in 2001, the district court was required to include the one-year term of supervised release. See U.S.S.G. §§ 5D1.1-2 (mandating one year of supervised release to follow a Class E felony sentence of more than one year). But the Guidelines that define supervised-release sentences, like those that calculate terms of imprisonment, are now advisory. Maken, 510 F.3d at 656 n. 3 (noting that Booker also governs sentences of supervised release). In resentencing Arhebamen, the district court simply stated that for all of the reasons that the Court has indicated and after due consideration of the sentencing guidelines and the factors reflected therein, as well as the factors contained in [18 U.S.C. § 3553], the Court resentences this defendant to a sentence of 21 months.... The court went on to summarily reimpose the same one-year term of supervised release, stating that [f]ollowing the defendant's release from imprisonment, he will be placed on a term of supervised release for a period of one year. According to the statute that controls supervised-release sentencing, most of the factors from § 3553(a) must be considered by a district court in imposing a term of supervised release. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(c). Arhebamen argues that his reimposed sentence was procedurally unreasonable because the district court failed to consider its authority to impose a shorter period of supervised release than the one-year term dictated by the previously mandatory Guidelines and did not perform the analysis required by §§ 3553(a) and 3583(c). We agree with Arhebamen that the supervised-release term was summarily imposed without an adequate explanation. Contrary to the suggestion of our dissenting colleague, our conclusion regarding this issue is not based upon the district court's failure to repeat its § 3553(a) analysis with respect to the supervised-release term. Such repetition would serve no useful purpose in the ordinary case. See, e.g., United States v. Berry, 565 F.3d 332, 342-43 (6th Cir.2009) (holding that a district court need not repeat the § 3553(a) factors when determining whether to impose a sentence consecutively or concurrently). Rather, the procedural error here stems from the district court's failure to recognize that Arhebamen's completion of his custodial sentence rendered that portion moot at the resentencing stage. This error is apparent in the sentencing court's incorrect statement that it could, in fact, sentence [Arhebamen] to a higher sentence than ... the last time because the guidelines are not mandatory. The context surrounding that statement clearly shows that the quoted remark refers to the custodial portion of the sentence. We therefore conclude that the district court erred when it reimposed a custodial sentence that had already been served, and we decline to transfer the district court's perfunctory § 3553(a) analysis with respect to the moot custodial sentence to its analysis-free reimposition of the supervised-release term. In light of this procedural error, we remand the case to the district court for consideration of whether the now-advisory period of supervised release is appropriate in this case. See, e.g., Lewis, 166 Fed.Appx. at 196 (vacating a supervised-release sentence in a case where the custodial sentence was moot and remanding for reconsideration pursuant to § 3583(c)).