Background
The defendant, previously convicted of firearm possession, was arrested for possessing a rifle and pistol while on supervised release. The government sought to revoke his supervised release based on possessing a machine gun, a Grade A violation. The district court relied on excerpts from a suppressed criminal trial and suppression hearing, which were not part of the revocation record, to find the defendant knowingly possessed a machine gun.
The court’s reasoning
The court held that the district court violated due process and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure thirty-two point one by relying on extra-record evidence to find the critical fact that the defendant knowingly possessed a machine gun. The government’s burden was to prove the violation using only the evidence presented in the revocation proceeding.
What it means going forward
Sentencing courts must strictly limit their fact-finding to the evidence presented during the supervised release revocation hearing.
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