Cite as: 511 U. S. 39 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
guess as to what Congress intended.' " Bifulco v. United States, 447 U. S. 381, 387 (1980), quoting Ladner v. United States, 358 U. S. 169, 178 (1958). We therefore adopt Grand-erson's interpretation and affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
I
Granderson, a letter carrier, pleaded guilty to one count of destruction of mail, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 1703(a). Under the Sentencing Guidelines, the potential imprisonment range, derived from the character of the offense and the offender's criminal history category, was 0-6 months. The District Court imposed no prison time, but sentenced Granderson to five years' probation and a $2,000 fine.3 As a standard condition of probation, Granderson was required to submit periodically to urinary testing for illegal drug use.
Several weeks after his original sentencing, Granderson tested positive for cocaine, and his probation officer petitioned for revocation of the sentence of probation. Finding that Granderson had possessed cocaine, the District Court revoked Granderson's sentence of probation and undertook to resentence him, pursuant to § 3565(a), to incarceration for "not less than one-third of the original sentence." The term "original sentence," the District Court concluded, referred to the term of probation actually imposed (60 months) rather than the imprisonment range authorized by the Guidelines (0-6 months). The court accordingly sentenced Granderson to 20 months' imprisonment.
The Court of Appeals upheld the revocation of the sentence of probation but vacated Granderson's new sentence. 969 F. 2d 980 (CA11 1992). That court observed that the probation revocation sentence of 20 months' imprisonment imposed by the District Court was far longer than the sen-3 The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, for the first time, classified probation as a sentence; before 1984, probation had been considered an alternative to a sentence. See S. Rep. No. 98-225, p. 88 (1983).
43
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007