{"id":87038,"date":"2018-12-24T14:56:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T19:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/?p=87038"},"modified":"2019-11-05T15:39:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T20:39:15","slug":"supervised-release-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/supervised-release\/supervised-release-term","title":{"rendered":"Supervised Release Term Appeal Potentially Goes Awry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
One of the key strategic decisions in deciding whether to appeal a criminal sentence is whether there is a possibility to receive an even harsher sentence. In the case of\u00a0United States v. Lopez-Pastrana<\/em><\/a>, the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a supervised release term that was imposed on a defendant who was not actually sentenced to serve any prison time due to a serious medical condition. While at first, this might seem like a win for the defendant, it may ultimately result in him being resentenced to an actual prison term if the district court finds that his medical condition is no longer as life-threatening as it was portrayed at the original sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 3583(a), a judge “in imposing a sentence to a term of imprisonment for a felony or a misdemeanor, may include as a\u00a0part of the sentence a requirement that the defendant be placed on a term of supervised release after imprisonment.” Thus, it stands to reason that a defendant could not receive a sentence that includes a supervised release term without first being sentenced to serve time in prison. It is also sometimes referred to as mandatory parole but is not considered a special privilege, such as early release or parole. It is imposed by the judge at the end of a prison term to ensure that the defendant is abiding by all terms of his or her release. A violation of the terms of supervised release can result in a defendant being sent back to prison.<\/p>\nWhen a Defendant is Sentenced to Supervised Release Term<\/h2>\n
What Happened in\u00a0United States v. Lopez-Pastrana<\/em><\/h2>\n