United States v. Woods
United States v. Woods
Opinion of the Court
Defendant-appellant Briane Nicole Woods appeals the district court’s imposition of a discretionary condition of supervised release forbidding her from residing with any person to whom she is not ceremonially married or related by blood. We conclude that the condition is overbroad and involves a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes of supervised release. Thus, the district court abused its discretion by imposing a supervised release condition that fails to meet a requirement set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d). We vacate the condition of supervised release, affirm the remainder of the sentence, and remand.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Woods appeals the district court’s imposition of a discretionary condition of supervised release prohibiting her from residing “with anyone that [she is] not ceremonially married to or related to by blood during the term of [her] supervised release” (the “residency condition”). On August 7, 2007, a jury found Woods guilty of two counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and one count of engaging in conduct causing bodily injury to another with intent to retaliate, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1513(b)(2). Woods does not dispute her conviction.
Woods’s sole argument on appeal challenges the district court’s authority to impose the residency condition. On December 13, 2007, the district court sentenced Woods to three concurrent terms of 120 months of imprisonment. The court also sentenced Woods to concurrent supervised release terms of five years on Count I and three years each on Counts II and IV. The court imposed many conditions of supervised release. Among these conditions, the court ordered Woods to refrain from associating with anyone who is a convicted felon or anyone engaged in criminal activity. The court also mandated that Woods have no contact with co-defendant Laqui-sha Powell or with Billy Beck, Carol Lawrence, or Bobby Washington, the other individuals involved in Woods’s underlying criminal activity. Finally, the district court imposed the residency condition.
At sentencing, Woods’s attorney objected to the residency condition on the basis that it deprived Woods of her constitutional right to liberty. Responding to the objection, the district court mentioned that the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors apply and that the purpose of supervised release is to help people to reintegrate into society. It then justified the residency condition on the ground that Woods needs stability in her home. It recited a number of destabilizing factors in Woods’s life that ostensibly led to her criminal behavior, including her lack of a father figure, her mother’s decision to have two children with a man other than Woods’s father, the detrimental influence of Woods’s peer
Woods timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
II. DISCUSSION
When the defendant objects at sentencing to the district court’s imposition of a discretionary condition of supervised release, we review for abuse of discretion. United States v. Ferguson, 369 F.3d 847, 852-53 (5th Cir. 2004); United States v. Paul, 274 F.3d 155, 164-65 (5th Cir. 2001). A district court abuses its discretion when it imposes a discretionary supervised release condition that deviates from the requirements defined in § 3583(d).
Section 3583(d) grants the district court wide discretion to impose any supervised release condition that it considers to be appropriate.
Under these requirements, courts of appeals have affirmed discretionary conditions restricting a defendant’s intimate associations where the district court appropriately defined the prohibited association and articulated a direct connection between the condition and a sentencing goal. See United States v. Smith, 436 F.3d 307, 311 (1st Cir. 2006) (affirming condition directing defendant to stay away from minor daughter because, inter alia, it served to protect public safety from defendant’s agitated entries into schools in
Nonetheless, the few courts to consider a supervised release condition that broadly restricts the defendant’s right to reside with classes of people (as distinguished from individuals or groups with whom the defendant has a relevant history) have concluded that it violated the defendant’s rights. On June 16, 2008, this court modified a sentence by striking the exact same condition as the district court applied here. See United States v. Torres, 281 Fed.Appx. 394, 403 (5th Cir. 2008) (unpublished) (per curiam).
Here, the district court abused its discretion because the residency condition
Yet, this particular residency condition is overbroad and involves a greater deprivation of Woods’s liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve sentencing purposes. See § 3583(d)(2) (cross-referencing the sentencing purposes in § 3553(a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C) & (a)(2)(D)). Although Woods lived with her mother when she committed the crimes (and could, under the residency condition, live with her while on supervised release), the blanket condition forbids her from living with nonrelatives, including potentially stabilizing individuals such as a close friend or a permanent roommate who could help her to bear the costs of her living arrangements and to care for her children. In addition, less intrusive options serve the same purpose. For example, the standard conditions of supervised release require Woods to notify her probation officer of any change in residence at least ten days in advance, and if the probation officer determines that Woods intends to reside with someone who will foster recidivism, then the probation officer can petition the court for the imposition of a supervised release condition specific to the particular threat and consistent with § 3583’s requirements.
III. CONCLUSION
For the above reasons, we VACATE in Woods’s sentence all oral and written permutations of the following supervised release condition: “You shall not reside with
. The district court articulated three versions of the residency condition — two oral and one written. The parties rely on the first oral version, which is consistent in all material respects with the written one, as the relevant condition. We do the same.
. Section 3583(d) provides:
The court may order, as a further condition of supervised release, to the extent that such condition—
(1) is reasonably related to the factors set forth in section 3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), and (a)(2)(D);
(2) involves no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary for the purposes set forth in section 3553(a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), and (a)(2)(D); and
(3)is consistent with any pertinent policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 994(a);
any condition set forth as a discretionary condition of probation in section 3563(b)(1) through (b)(10) and (b)(12) through (b)(20), and any other condition it considers to be appropriate.
. The condition in Torres provided: “The defendant shall not reside with anyone who is not a blood relative, or that the defendant is not legally married to whether it be a civil or religious ceremony during the term of supervision.” See Torres, 281 Fed.Appx. at 403.
. See § 3583(e)(2) (permitting district courts to modify or add conditions during term of supervised release); Fed.R.Crim.P. 32.1(c); United States v. Emerson, 231 Fed.Appx. 349, 353 (5th Cir. 2007) (per curiam) (unpublished) ("Section 3583(e)(2) vests a district court, after considering the factors set forth in § 3553(a), with broad discretion to modify a defendant's conditions of supervised release by adding special conditions at any time prior to the expiration or termination of the term of supervised release.”).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Briane Nicole WOODS
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published