Johnson: State Probation does not Suspend Federal Supervised Release

In U.S. v. Johnson, No. 09-10351 (Sept. 2, 2009), the Court held that time spent serving a State sentence on probation, while under a federal sentence of supervised release, does toll the running of the period of supervised release. The fact that the State sentence of imprisonment was suspended so that Johnson could serve it on probation did not affect the tolling analysis. Hence, Johnson’s alleged violations of his conditions of federal supervised release, which occurred, when one excludes the time spent on probation on a State sentence, within the federal supervised release three-year term, could be the basis for revocation of supervised release. The Court therefore affirmed the district court’s revocation of Johnson’s supervised release, based on violations that occurred within the three-year period.