United States v. Arthur Douville

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Decided: July 16, 2024
• Docket: 23-4253
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

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UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-4253

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

ARTHUR SHANE DOUVILLE,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Asheville. Martin K. Reidinger, Chief District Judge. (1:22-cr-00086-MR-WCM-1)

Submitted: May 31, 2024 Decided: July 16, 2024

Before HARRIS and BENJAMIN, Circuit Judges, and MOTZ, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed and remanded with instructions by unpublished per curiam opinion.

ON BRIEF: Chiege O. Kalu Okwara, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Amy Elizabeth Ray, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellee.

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PER CURIAM:

Arthur Douville pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute a quantity of

methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The district court sentenced

Douville to 188 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. The court

also ordered Douville to pay a special assessment of $100. Douville timely appealed but,

while the appeal was pending before this court, Douville died.

We have held that an appellant’s death “pending appeal of a criminal conviction

abates not only the appeal but all proceedings in the prosecution from its inception. In such

a case, the appeal is dismissed and the cause remanded to the district court with instructions

to vacate the judgment and to dismiss the indictment.” United States v. Dudley, 739 F.2d

175, 176 (4th Cir. 1984) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted), abrogated on

other grounds by Nelson v. Colorado, 581 U.S. 128 (2017). Further, in light of the Supreme

Court’s ruling in Nelson, 581 U.S. at 130, 134-39 (holding that due process is violated by

state statutes requiring defendants whose convictions have been reversed or vacated to

prove their innocence by clear and convincing evidence in order to obtain refund of costs,

fees, and restitution paid pursuant to invalid convictions), the death of a defendant during

pendency of a direct appeal also requires abatement of orders of restitution and forfeiture,

and a refund of any paid portion of a special assessment.

Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal as moot. We remand to the district court with

instructions to vacate Douville’s conviction and sentence, including the imposition of the

special assessment, to refund any portion of the special assessment that has already been

paid, and to dismiss the bill of information relating to the underlying conviction. We

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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.

DISMISSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS