In U.S. v. Mitsven, No. 05-12647 (June 22, 2006), the Court held that, on revocation of probation, a district court was required to impose a three-year term of supervised release.
The Court noted that the probation revocation statute instructs sentencing courts to resentence a defendant under Subchapter A of the sentencing laws. Subchapter A in turn instructs to impose a term of imprisonment under Subchapter D. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(a), which is part of Subchapter D, instructs that supervised release must be imposed if the statute of conviction so requires. Mitsen’s original statute of conviction, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C), provides that a three year term of supervised release must be imposed if the defendant is sentenced to a term of incarceration. Since the revocation sentence included a four-month term of incarceration, supervised release was required.
