U.S. v. Walker

Dist. Ct. did not commit plain error in sentencing defendant to 80-month term of incarceration on charges of unlawful possession of firearm and conspiracy to obstruct justice arising out of defendant’s attempt to bribe witnesses in his firearm charge after he was incarcerated, under circumstances where Dist. Ct. made recommendation to Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that defendant not receive any credit for pretrial incarceration prior to date that superseding indictment alleging instant conspiracy charge was filed. While defendant argued that Dist. Ct. improperly left to BOP task of calculating defendant’s pre-trial sentencing credit, Dist. Ct. properly left such calculation to BOP, since: (1) 18 USC section 3585(b) does not authorize Dist. Ct. to compute such credit at sentencing hearing; and (2) BOP has exclusive authority over such computation. Thus, even if Dist. Ct. had wanted to give defendant credit for all time that he was incarcerated prior to trial, Dist. Ct. could not do so.