Court Opinion

ID: 9470654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:12:18.652657+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:02.141995
License: Public Domain

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I join in all of Judge Garza’s excellent opinion for the Court, and append these remarks only to express my concern over the implications of the revocation of probation for conduct occurring before the event from which the commencement of the specified five-year duration of the probation is measured, where the conduct takes place after the sentencing at which the probation is imposed and the “fraud at sentencing” concept is not involved. My concern is grounded on the provision of 18 U.S.C. § 3651 that “[t]he period of probation, together with any extension thereof, shall not exceed five years.” At the very least this would appear to mean that five years is the maximum length of any period during which the conduct of a probationer may subject him to revocation of the probation (as opposed to resentencing for fraud at sentencing). Surely the quoted provision of section 3651 prevents a sentence imposing a period of probation which is expressly stated to commence the day of sentencing and to thereafter continue either for six years after sentencing or for five years after the occurrence of some ascertainable future time or event, such as the probationer’s completion of a given number of hours of public service or the like. Yet virtually the same result is achieved de facto in a case like that at bar, where the sentence imposes probation for a period commencing with a future event (release from prison) and end*866ing five years after that event, and revocation is based not on “fraud at sentencing” but solely on conduct occurring before commencement of the stated five-year probation period and after the sentencing. Our prior decisions, cited in Judge Garza’s opinion, sanction such a result. However, they are principally focused on the issue of revocation for conduct prior to the commencement of the probationary period, whatever its stated (or effective) duration, rather than on the issue posed by the effective lengthening of the probation period beyond the statutory five-year maximum. Nevertheless, these decisions are binding on this panel, and I accordingly concur in Judge Garza’s opinion on this issue, as well as on the other matters presented by the instant appeal.