United States v. Robert Black
United States v. Robert Black
Opinion
USCA4 Appeal: 22-4691 Doc: 36 Filed: 09/27/2024 Pg: 1 of 4
UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 22-4691
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
ROBERT BLACK, a/k/a Kareem Banks, a/k/a Nino Black, a/k/a Black,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Charleston. David C. Norton, District Judge. (2:16-cr-00054-DCN-9)
Submitted: August 20, 2024 Decided: September 27, 2024
Before DIAZ, Chief Judge, and WILKINSON and KING, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed and remanded with instructions by unpublished per curiam opinion.
ON BRIEF: Leslie T. Sarji, SARJI LAW FIRM, LLC, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellant. Adair F. Boroughs, United States Attorney, Columbia, South Carolina, Andrea G. Hoffman, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 22-4691 Doc: 36 Filed: 09/27/2024 Pg: 2 of 4
PER CURIAM:
Robert Black appeals the 210-month sentence imposed on resentencing following
Black’s guilty plea to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 1594(c). Black’s counsel filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California,
386 U.S. 738(1967), concluding that there were no meritorious grounds for appeal but questioning
whether the district court adequately explained Black’s sentence. After reviewing the
record pursuant to Anders, we identified two potentially meritorious issues, and we
accordingly directed the parties to provide supplemental briefing addressing the
constitutionality of a discretionary condition of Black’s supervised release (“the
contact-with-minors condition”) and whether the oral pronouncement of that condition was
inconsistent with the written judgment. For the following reasons, we affirm the Black’s
sentence but remand with instructions for the district court to amend the judgment to match
its oral pronouncement of the contact-with-minors condition.
We review “all sentences—whether inside, just outside, or significantly outside the
[advisory Sentencing] Guidelines range—under a deferential abuse-of-discretion
standard.” United States v. Torres-Reyes,
952 F.3d 147, 151(4th Cir. 2020) (internal
quotation marks omitted). For a sentence to be procedurally reasonable, “a district court
must conduct an individualized assessment of the facts and arguments presented and
impose an appropriate sentence, and it must explain the sentence chosen.” United States
v. Nance,
957 F.3d 204, 212(4th Cir. 2020) (internal quotation marks omitted). The district
court’s “explanation need not be exhaustive or robotically tick through the [18 U.S.C.]
§ 3553(a) factors,” but it “must be sufficient to satisfy the appellate court that the district
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court has considered the parties’ arguments and has a reasoned basis for exercising its own
legal decisionmaking authority.” United States v. Friend,
2 F.4th 369, 379(4th Cir. 2021)
(cleaned up). Our review of the record leads us to conclude that the district court
adequately explained the chosen sentence.
As to the conditions of Black’s supervised release, a district court must orally
pronounce at sentencing all discretionary conditions of supervised release. United States
v. Rogers,
961 F.3d 291, 296(4th Cir. 2020); United States v. Singletary (Singletary I),
984 F.3d 341, 345(4th Cir. 2021). Under our precedent, “a material discrepancy between
a discretionary condition as pronounced and as detailed in a written judgment may
constitute Rogers error.” United States v. Mathis,
103 F.4th 193, 197(4th Cir. 2024)
(internal quotation marks omitted).
Here, the parties agree that the versions of the contact-with-minors condition
pronounced at sentencing and included in the written judgment are materially inconsistent.
They further agree that the district court’s intent at sentencing was clear: that the contact-
with-minors condition should prohibit only unsupervised contact with minors to whom
Black is not biologically related. Finally, the parties agree that the appropriate remedy for
this error is to remand to the district court to correct the written judgment to conform with
the oral pronouncement of the contact-with-minors condition. This requested remedy is
consistent with our precedent. See United States v. Singletary (Singletary II),
75 F.4th 416,
427 n.7 (4th Cir.), cert. denied,
144 S. Ct. 519(2023); United States v. Morse,
344 F.2d 27, 29 n.1 (4th Cir. 1965).
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Accordingly, we affirm Black’s sentence and remand to the district court with
instructions to amend the written judgment to conform with the district court’s oral
pronouncement of the contact-with-minors condition, leaving the sentence, including the
remaining conditions of supervised release, undisturbed. * We dispense with oral argument
because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this
court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS
* We discern no plain error in the constitutionality of the contact-with-minors condition as orally pronounced at the resentencing hearing. See United States v. Elbaz,
52 F.4th 593, 613(4th Cir. 2022), cert. denied,
144 S. Ct. 278(2023).
4
Reference
- Status
- Unpublished