Reno v. Koray

take a stand on the case and use convincing arguments and an analysis of constitutional issues to support its position.

Zeno Koray was arrested for money laundering, a violation of federal law, in 1991. He was tried in Maryland, where he pled guilty to the charge in front of a U. S. District judge. A federal magistrate then ordered Koray to be released on bail pursuant to the Bail Reform Act of 1984, whereafter he was confined to a treatment center. The issue which the District Court had to decide was whether Koray's stay at the center could be construed as "official detention" under the definition of §3585(b) of 18 USCS, which provides that a defendant should usually "be given credit toward the service of a term of imprisonment for any time he has spent in official detention prior to the date the sentence commences." The District Court held that the time which Zoray spent in the center would not be construed as "official detention" under the statute.

The Court of Appeals had to reconsider the question of whether Zoray's stay in the center fell within the meaning of the statute's "official detention" language. The Government contended that the meaning of this phras

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ach his conclusion that the words "official detention" mean in a facility which is controlled by the BOP. Justice Rehnquist reasoned that because "the Bail Reform Act" is the specific body of law which actually authorizes a prisoner to receive credit for pre-sentence time served, that a defendant can only be said to have suffered an imposition of his personal liberty sufficient to constitute official detention only if he or she was committed to the custody of the Attorney General, and not to any lesser authority. The Chief Justice noted that because another section of the same statute helped flesh out the meaning of the phrase, it follows that identical phrases within the same statute or Act must bear the same meaning. He also noted that "credit for time spent in official detention under §3585(b) is available only to those defendants who were detained . . . and who were subject to the BOP' control." The second main point which the Justice makes is that there is a distinction which must be made between defendants who were released on bail and those who were detained on bail. Thus, since this particular defendant was released, and not detained, he was not longer subject to the authority of the BOP. Had Zoray been detained
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2015
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)