United States v. Dana Alexander

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: July 13, 2022
• Docket: 21-2730
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________

No. 21-2730 ___________________________

United States of America

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Dana John Alexander

Defendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City ____________

Submitted: March 14, 2022 Filed: July 13, 2022 [Unpublished] ____________

Before GRASZ, STRAS, and KOBES, Circuit Judges. ____________

PER CURIAM.

In 2007, Dana Alexander pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and was sentenced to 136 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. After serving his prison sentence, Alexander violated the terms of his supervised release. The district court1 sentenced him to 24 months in prison and another 12 months of supervised release. He appeals, arguing that his revocation sentence is procedurally and substantively unreasonable.

But while this appeal was pending, Alexander was released from prison. Because he only challenged his custodial sentence, we conclude that his appeal is moot. See Teague v. Cooper, 720 F.3d 973, 976 (8th Cir. 2013) (“[W]e will dismiss as moot a case in which changed circumstances have already provided the requested relief and eliminated the need for court action.” (quotation omitted) (cleaned up)). And “[a]lthough a term of supervised release is a part of the sentence,” Alexander only requested relief from his prison sentence—he made no arguments that go to his supervised release.2 Owen v. United States, 930 F.3d 989, 990 (8th Cir. 2019) (citation omitted).

Accordingly, we dismiss Alexander’s appeal. ______________________________

1 The Honorable Stephen R. Bough, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri. 2 See, e.g., Alexander Br. at i (“Dana Alexander challenges the procedural and substantive reasonableness of the 24-month sentence of imprisonment imposed for violating the conditions of supervised release.”). -2-