United States v. Daniel Stone

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Decided: July 7, 2023
• Docket: 21-7738
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

USCA4 Appeal: 21-7738 Doc: 12 Filed: 07/07/2023 Pg: 1 of 3

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 21-7738

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

DANIEL AARON STONE,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Florence. R. Bryan Harwell, Chief District Judge. (4:06-cr-00474-RBH-1)

Submitted: February 15, 2023 Decided: July 7, 2023

Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, and WYNN and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Daniel Aaron Stone, Appellant Pro Se. Lauren L. Hummel, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Florence, South Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 21-7738 Doc: 12 Filed: 07/07/2023 Pg: 2 of 3

PER CURIAM:

Daniel Aaron Stone appeals the district court’s text order denying reconsideration

on Stone’s 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) motion for compassionate release. We review a

district court’s denial of a compassionate-release motion for abuse of discretion. United

States v. Kibble, 992 F.3d 326, 329 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 142 S. Ct. 383 (2021). “A

district court abuses its discretion when it acts arbitrarily or irrationally, fails to consider

judicially recognized factors constraining its exercise of discretion, relies on erroneous

factual or legal premises, or commits an error of law.” United States v. Jenkins, 22 F.4th

162, 167 (4th Cir. 2021) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Upon review of Stone’s arguments on appeal, in conjunction with the underlying

record and relevant authorities, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its

discretion in denying Stone’s motion. See United States v. Bond, 56 F.4th 381, 384-85

(4th Cir. 2023) (holding, within the compassionate-release context, that district court did

not abuse its discretion in considering (a) defendant’s sentencing exposure on all charged

counts, despite defendant pleading guilty to only two 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) counts; and (b) the

substantial benefit defendant received by pleading guilty to those two counts); ∗ see also

United States v. High, 997 F.3d 181, 189-90 (4th Cir. 2021) (recognizing that a district

court need not “acknowledge and address each of the defendant’s arguments on the

record,” so long as the court offers “enough to satisfy our court that it has considered the

parties’ arguments and has a reasoned basis for exercising its own legal decisionmaking

∗ We held this appeal in abeyance for this court’s decision in Bond.

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authority, so as to allow for meaningful appellate review” (cleaned up)). Accordingly, we

affirm the district court’s text order. United States v. Stone, No. 4:06-cr-00474-RBH-1

(D.S.C. Nov. 9, 2021).

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