56
Opinion of the Court
minimum revocation sentence of zero, a result incompatible with the apparent objective of the proviso—to assure that those whose probation is revoked for drug possession serve a term of imprisonment. The maximum Guidelines sentence as the benchmark for the revocation sentence, on the other hand, is "a sensible construction" that avoids attributing to the legislature either "an unjust or an absurd conclusion." In re Chapman, 166 U. S. 661, 667 (1897).14
V
We decide, in sum, that the drug-possession proviso of § 3565(a) establishes a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment, but we reject the Government's contention that the proviso unambiguously calls for a sentence based on the term of probation rather than the originally applicable Guidelines range of imprisonment. Granderson's interpretation, if not flawless, is a securely plausible reading of the statutory language, and it avoids the textual difficulties and sentencing disparities we identified in the Government's position. In these circumstances, in common with the Court of Appeals, we apply the rule of lenity and resolve the ambiguity in Granderson's favor. The minimum revocation sentence, we hold, is one-third the maximum of the originally
14 The Government observes that "in appropriate circumstances" the sentencing court may depart upward from the presumptive Guidelines range, limited in principle only by the statutory maximum. See 18 U. S. C. § 3553(b). According to the Government, it follows that if the "original sentence" is the "maximum available sentence," then the statutory maximum rather than the top of the presumptive Guidelines range is the appropriate basis for the revocation sentence. Brief for United States 22. The short answer to the Government's argument is that for cases in which the sentencing judge considers an upward departure warranted, a sentence of probation, rather than one of imprisonment, is a most unlikely prospect. It makes scant sense, then, to assume that an "original sentence" for purposes of probation revocation is a sentence beyond the presumptively applicable Guidelines range.
Page: Index Previous 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007