Ricky Joe Bland v. United States

This Petition asks this Court to resolve a split among the federal circuit courts on a question of federal criminal sentencing procedure. If a criminal defendant receives a term of supervised release, the district court will specify the conditions that the defendant must follow. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583. As part of supervised release, a defendant must receive “a drug test within 15 days of release on supervised release and at least 2 periodic drug tests thereafter (as determined by the court) for use of a controlled substance.” 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d). A plurality of the Circuits holds that statute requires that the district court judge determine the number and/or frequency of any drug tests that the defendant will face while on supervised release, regardless of whether the testing is imposed as a special condition or mandatory condition of supervised release. The Sixth Circuit below, however, believed that the district court could delegate the frequency of drug testing to the probation officer when the testing is ordered as a special condition of supervised release. To resolve the split, this Petition asks the Court to decide the following question: 1. Did the district court below err in imposing as a special condition of supervised release a requirement that “[t]he defendant… participate in a program of testing and/or treatment for drug…abuse, as directed by the probation officer, until such time as the defendant is released from the program by the probation officer.”