This month, we discuss United States v. Roccisano,1 in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment of conviction sentencing a defendant to a 46-month term of imprisonment after the defendant pled guilty to one charge of illegally reentering the United States. The court’s opinion, issued per curiam, considered whether a defendant-alien’s deportation terminates his term of supervised release. Because the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines add two criminal history points to a violation committed during a period of supervised release, the decision not to terminate supervised release upon deportation allows for longer sentences of defendant-aliens who reenter the United States and commit criminal offenses here post-deportation. The case was decided by Circuit Judge Robert Katzmann, Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, and Judge Jane Restani of the U.S. Court of International Trade, sitting by designation.
Background
In August 1989, a New York jury convicted Italian citizen Vincenzo Roccisano of conspiring to import and export illegal narcotics.2 Specifically, Roccisano was convicted of: (1) conspiring to import into the United States more than one kilogram of heroin and export out of the United States more than five kilograms of cocaine; (2) conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine domestically; and (3) attempting to export out of the United States five kilograms or more of cocaine.3
