United States v. Grant

The Fourth Circuit assumed, without deciding, that in some circumstances, federal common law offers prisoners the possibility of credit for time erroneously spent at liberty. The court declined to adopt the Vega v. United States, 493 F.3d 310, 318 (3d Cir. 2007), test because of its failure to adequately consider the multitude of interests an award of credit implicates. Instead, the court turned to the various other interests implicated in a decision to award credit for time erroneously spent at liberty because of a premature release. In this case, defendant's underlying conviction and underlying supervised probation violation involved nonviolent drug offenses, and he proactively brought his erroneous release to the Government's attention. However, defendant sought ten days of credit for a fifteen day sentence; because the magistrate judge allowed him to serve this ten-day period on weekends and other days to accommodate his employment schedule, reincarceration would at most only minimally hinder his reintegration into society; the ten days was short enough to avoid the disruption to a prisoner's life; and the government did not act maliciously. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's judgment and held that it did not improperly deny defendant his credit. View "United States v. Grant" on Justia Law