United States v. Cannon, No. 13-1625 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was sentenced to 48 months' imprisonment for unlawful possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon. After defendant admitted a violation of the terms of his supervised release, the district court revoked his release and sentenced him to 12 months' imprisonment, but subsequently amended its judgment twice. As authority for amending the judgment, the district court cited Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(a). The court held that there was no reversible error in the district court's original sentence; the record of the second hearing suggested that the district court expected the Bureau of Prisons to take some action, but was frustrated that it would not "accept the Court's positions" about "when the sentence was supposed to run;" and, therefore, the original sentence was not the product of a mistake in the district court's application of the sentencing guidelines or a failure to consider the relevant statutory factors. Therefore, the court concluded that, under the circumstances of this case, the district court lacked authority to modify a sentence imposed for defendant's violation of supervised release. Accordingly, the court vacated the second amended judgment and directed that the original be reinstated.
Court Description: Criminal Case - supervised release. The district court erred in amending the judgment under Fed. R Crim. P. 35(a) and imposing additional prison time after learning that the Bureau of Prisons intended to award credit for time spent in state custody. Rule 35(a) is limited to sentences that are incorrect or unreasonable as a matter of law; misunderstanding or mistaken prediction about how the Bureau of Prisons would compute credit is not sufficient reason to alter a sentence under "other clear error."
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