Edwards v. Cross

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant’s habeas petition that challenged imposition of second term of special parole that was entered as part of new sentence after defendant had violated first term of special parole. Under Evans v. U.S. Parole Commission, 78 F.3d 262, Parole Commission could not re-impose special parole that had been imposed, along with prison sentence, on finding of violation of first term of special parole. Moreover, while U.S. Supreme Court, in Johnson v. U.S., 529 US 694, found that Dist. Ct. could re-impose term of supervised release upon revocation of first term of supervised release, differences between special parole statute (21 USC section 841(c)) and supervised release statute (18 USC section 3583(e)) precluded Dist. Ct. from finding that holding in Johnson undermined holding in Evans so as to support imposition of instant second term of special parole. As such, remand was required for issuance of order vacating imposition of special parole in favor of order imposing regular parole instead.