United States v. Anthony Key

832 F.3d 837, 2016 WL 4191182
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedAugust 9, 2016
Docket15-3413, 15-3416
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 832 F.3d 837 (United States v. Anthony Key) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Anthony Key, 832 F.3d 837, 2016 WL 4191182 (8th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

*839 COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Anthony Key appeals from an order of the district court 1 revoking his term of supervised release. Key argues that a special condition of release prohibiting the possession of obscene materials is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad and, alternatively, that he did not violate the condition. He also argues that the district court committed procedural error in imposing a sentence of twenty-four months’ imprisonment. We affirm.

I.

In 2006, Key pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Key then failed to appear at sentencing and left the judicial district without permission. Key was arrested and charged with failure- to appear and with perjury before a federal magistrate judge in a detention hearing. Key pleaded guilty to both charges.

At a consolidated sentencing hearing, the district court sentenced Key to a combined term of 78 months’ imprisonment. The sentence consisted of a 68-month sentence for possession of child pornography, a concurrent 60-month sentence for perjury, and a consecutive 10-month sentence for failure to appear. The court also ordered a lifetime term of supervised release for the child pornography conviction and three years’ supervised release on the remaining counts of conviction. Key’s sen: tence included several special conditions of supervised release. One condition provided that Key must not “possess obscene material as deemed inappropriate by the probation officer and/or treatment staff.” Key did not appeal his conviction, sentence, or conditions of release.

Key was released from prison in January 2013. The district court revoked his supervised release twice, in March 2014 and May 2015. The court sentenced Key to six months’ imprisonment the first time and 120 days in custody on the second occasion. After each revocation, the district, court reimposed terms of supervised release with similar conditions. In its most recent judgment, the district court included Special Condition Number 6, which again made it a condition that Key must not “possess obscene material as deemed inappropriate by the probation officer and/or treatment staff.” The court also required Key to participate in a residential reentry program at a halfway house for up to 120 days following his release from prison.

Key was released on June 1, 2015, and reported to a halfway house the following day. Staff searched Key’s belongings and discovered sexually explicit hand-drawn pictures and hand-written stories. The director of the halfway house testified that she deemed the materials inappropriate and obscene, and that she turned the pictures and writings over to the probation office. Key was informed ¿hat the halfway house prohibited the possession of obscene and pornographic materials, but he protested that he had a “right to draw anything he wanted to draw and write anything he wanted to write.” During his brief stay at the halfway house, Key was argumentative and uncooperative with staff, refused to participate in required activities, and refused to eat unless certain demands were met. Due to this uncooperative behavior, Key was discharged from the halfway house within one week of his arrival.

On a petition by the probation office, the district court revoked Key’s term of supervised release based on his possession of obscene materials and termination from *840 the halfway house. Under USSG § 7B1.4(a), Key’s advisory sentencing range was 3 to 9 months’ imprisonment. The court, however, varied upward and sentenced Key to 24 months’ imprisonment, concluding that a sentence above the advisory range was necessary based on the severity of the violations and Key’s “complete ... disregard for his supervision.”

II.

Key challenges the district court’s finding that he violated Special Condition Number 6, which prohibited the possession of obscene materials. He focuses primarily on the language of the special condition itself, arguing that the condition is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. We are skeptical that a defendant who failed to appeal the imposition of a condition of release can bring a facial challenge to the condition following revocation. See United States v. LeCompte, 800 F.3d 1209, 1214 n.6 (10th Cir. 2015) (“Courts have consistently said that a defendant cannot challenge the condition on its face at a revocation hearing.”); accord United States v. Preacely, 702 F.3d 373, 376-77 (7th Cir. 2012); United States v. Nolan, 932 F.2d 1005, 1007 (1st Cir. 1991) (per curiam). The government, however, does not press this point and acquiesces in plain error review. We therefore assume for the stake of analysis that the issues are properly before us and proceed under the plain-error standard. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b).

Key argues that Special Condition Number 6 is unconstitutionally vague because its prohibition on “obscene materials” fails to provide “notice as to what film, prose, or drawing he may view.” Key argues that the Supreme Court’s definition of obscenity in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973), is “wholly subjective and unpredictable, making it impossible for ordinary individuals to determine what is criminal.” The Court, however, has held that the term as defined in Miller is not unconstitutionally vague because its scope “can be ascertained with sufficient ease.” Smith v. United States, 431 U.S. 291, 309, 97 S.Ct. 1756, 52 L.Ed.2d 324 (1977). Key’s vagueness claim is thus foreclosed by precedent.

We also find unpersuasive Key’s argument that Special Condition Number 6 is plainly overbroad. This court has held that when a defendant is convicted of an offense related to child pornography, a ban on the possession of pornography is “appropriately tailored to serve [the] dual purposes of promoting [the defendant’s] rehabilitation and protecting children from exploitation.” United States v. Ristine, 335 F.3d 692, 694-95 (8th Cir. 2003). For that reason, the court has “consistently rejected overbreadth arguments where the special condition at issue precluded the defendant from possessing pornography or sexually explicit material.” United States v. Thompson, 653 F.3d 688, 695 (8th Cir. 2011). Because a ban on possessing obscene materials is narrower than a ban on possessing pornography or sexually explicit material, see Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal, 535 U.S. 234, 240, 122 S.Ct. 1389, 152 L.Ed.2d 403 (2002), it is not plain that the prohibition here is overbroad.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
832 F.3d 837, 2016 WL 4191182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-anthony-key-ca8-2016.