United States v. Perez, No. 21-4026 (4th Cir. 2022)
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Perez violated the conditions of an initial supervised release sentence. The district court revoked that release, imposed a six-month term of imprisonment, and sentenced him to an additional 36 months of supervised release. Perez argued that this new supervised release sentence would exceed the maximum term set by 18 U.S.C. 3583, a provision generally authorizing courts to include supervised release as part of a sentence. The district court disagreed, holding that Perez’s supervised release sentence was governed instead by 21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)(D), the controlled-substance statute under which he originally was convicted, which imposes no maximum on terms of supervised release.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed, noting that 11 courts of appeals have concluded that section 3583(b) does not limit the length of supervised release sentences authorized by section 841(b)(1). Rather, the provisions of section 841(b)(1) itself, which expressly apply “[n]otwithstanding section 3583 of title 18,” alone set the bounds on supervised release in 841(b)(1) cases. Section 841(b)(1)(D) establishes a 24-month minimum but no maximum term of supervised release; the district court’s 36-month sentence falls squarely within the statutory range.
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