Opinion ID: 749397
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Length Of Fullum's Supervised Release

Text: 52 The District Court classified Fullum's original offense as a Class B felony and sentenced Fullum to a five-year term of supervised release. After Fullum violated the terms of his original supervised release sentence, the District Court sentenced Fullum to eight months in prison and reimposed the remainder of his original five-year supervised release sentence, with credit for time spent in prison. Fullum challenges the District Court's decision to impose the five-year term of supervised release. 53 Fullum argues that if this Court reclassifies his original offense to a Class C felony, then this Court must reduce his supervised release sentence to three years because section 3583(b) limits supervised release sentences for Class C felonies to no more than three years. 1 The majority assumes for the sake of argument that Fullum's offense should be reclassified to a Class C felony. Despite this assumption, the majority still holds that the District Court was permitted to impose the five-year supervised release sentence because section 841(b)(1)(C), the statute under which Fullum was sentenced, provides that Fullum could be sentenced to at least three years of supervised release with no maximum. 2 54 I find that the statutory provisions, 18 U.S.C. § 3583(b) and 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C), are basically incoherent because Congress passed two conflicting statutes and failed to explain when to apply them. Section 841 provides minimum supervised release sentences for offenders of that statute based on their crimes and criminal history; in this case, section 841(b)(1)(C) provides that the District Court could sentence Fullum to a supervised release term of at least three years. Section 3583(b) limits supervised release sentences for offenses based on the Class of the felony; in this case, section 3583(b) provides that the supervised release term for Fullum's Class C felony could be not more than three years. We must decide whether the three-year maximum term set by section 3583(b) prevents the District Court, sentencing Fullum under section 841(b)(1)(C), from imposing a supervised release sentence exceeding three years. The majority acknowledges that the Circuits are split when faced with cases similar to the one before us. 55 The Circuit split illustrates that it is unclear which statute governs in Fullum's situation. Under the rule of lenity, an ambiguity in a criminal statute must be resolved in favor of the defendant. See United States v. Morton, 17 F.3d 911, 915 (6th Cir.1994); United States v. Romano, 970 F.2d 164 (6th Cir.1992); United States v. Minarik, 875 F.2d 1186 (6th Cir.1989). Under the circumstances, defendant Fullum is entitled to the benefit of the ambiguity Congress created by passing two conflicting statutes. Therefore, I would hold that Fullum is entitled to a supervised release term of three years.