United States v. Daniels

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in United States v. Daniels. Read the opinion of the Court — 541 F.3d 915
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided August 28, 2008·No. 07-50242·Published

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 07-50242 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No. CR-06-00096-SGL HARRY JOHN DANIELS, OPINION Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Stephen G. Larson, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted March 6, 2008—Pasadena, California

Filed August 29, 2008

Before: J. Clifford Wallace, Ronald M. Gould, and Sandra S. Ikuta, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Wallace

11985 UNITED STATES v. DANIELS 11989

COUNSEL

Sean K. Kennedy, Federal Public Defender, and Kathryn A. Young, Deputy Federal Public Defender, Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, for the defendant-appellant. 11990 UNITED STATES v. DANIELS Thomas P. O’Brien, United States Attorney, Christine C. Ewell and Joseph N. Akrotirianakis, Assistant United States Attorneys, Los Angeles, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

WALLACE, Circuit Judge:

Daniels appeals from the sentence he received after plead- ing guilty to possessing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). He challenges the length and sev- eral conditions of his lifetime term of supervised release. We affirm in part, and vacate and remand in part.

I

In August 2004, special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were investigating the distribution of child pornography over the internet through online chat groups. After identifying a group whose members traded child por- nography over the internet, the FBI traced the online identity of one group member to Daniels in Upland, California. In September 2004, the FBI executed a federal search warrant for Daniels’ Upland residence. Daniels made two statements to the FBI in which he admitted that he was a member of the subject group, that he participated in the group in a female persona, that on several occasions he had downloaded child pornography from the internet and uploaded child pornogra- phy to the internet, and that he had child pornography saved on his computer hard drive and on computer diskettes in his home.

FBI agents seized a computer, 223 diskettes, three compact discs, three videotapes, and eleven file folders of documents belonging to Daniels. A search of these media revealed thou- sands of images and videos of child pornography, and exam- UNITED STATES v. DANIELS 11991 iners at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children determined that these thousands of images included 659 images depicting identified victims of child sexual abuse.

In exchange for Daniels’ agreement to plead guilty to a single-count information alleging possession of child pornog- raphy and to waive certain appellate rights, the government agreed not to prosecute Daniels for violations of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1)-(4) or (6) which would have charged him with receipt, distribution, reproduction, advertisement, promotion, solicitation, or sale of child pornography, or possession with intent to sell child pornography. The plea agreement stated that the maximum sentence included ten years of imprison- ment and a lifetime period of supervised release. As part of the plea agreement, Daniels consented to several conditions of supervised release related to the use of computers and the internet. The district court accepted the plea agreement.

The Probation Office filed its Presentence Report (PSR) on Daniels and recommended a lifetime term of supervised release, observed that the lifetime term was warranted by applicable statutory provisions, and recommended incarcera- tion within the sentencing guidelines. The PSR reasoned that Daniels’ interest in child pornography over a number of years, his desire to protect his illegal pornographic images, and “an unknown clinical risk assessment of his behavior” all sup- ported the imposition of the lifetime term. The government’s sentencing memorandum agreed with the Probation Office’s recommendations and with the justification for the recom- mendations.

Daniels objected to the lifetime term and certain special conditions of supervised release, arguing that they were unreasonable and that they did not comport with the govern- ing statutory requirements. In response, the Probation Office reiterated that a lifetime term of supervised release was neces- sary: 11992 UNITED STATES v. DANIELS Because the defendant has carefully controlled the type of information provided to the Court as to his psychological condition and orientation, a lifetime term of supervised [release] is necessary for protec- tion of the community, as a truly independent risk assessment has not been conducted. Perhaps even more compelling is that such a term is needed to meet the goal of ensuring adequate rehabilitative treatment. The issues underlying sex offenses are typically deeply ingrained and require life long man- agement. Should the defendant be able to demon- strate to the Court during the term of supervised release that all the underlying clinical truths as to his condition have been identified and ameliorated, the defendant can apply for an early termination of his supervised release.

Most of the argument at the sentencing hearing related to the term of imprisonment. The lifetime term of supervised release and special conditions of release were not brought up by either party. The district court ultimately imposed a 51- month sentence of imprisonment, below the low-end of the advisory Guidelines range. Although Daniels’ opening brief challenged his term of imprisonment as unreasonable, he withdrew that argument in his reply brief. The district court also imposed a lifetime term of supervised release with sev- eral special conditions, including those to which Daniels had consented in the plea agreement and others for which he had not waived appellate rights. Daniels timely appealed, chal- lenging the length of his term of supervised release as well as several of its special conditions.

II

We first address Daniels’ challenges to the district court’s imposition of a lifetime term of supervised release. The length of Daniels’ term of supervised release is part of his sentence and is reviewed for reasonableness. See United States v. Cope, UNITED STATES v. DANIELS 11993 527 F.3d 944, 950 (9th Cir. 2008). “On appeal, we first con- sider whether the district court committed significant proce- dural error, then we consider the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.” United States v. Carty, 520 F.3d 984, 993 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc).

[1] Daniels argues that the lifetime term must be reversed because the district court failed to explain its reasons for its imposition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c), which pro- vides that “[t]he court, at the time of sentencing, shall state in open court the reasons for its imposition of the particular sen- tence.” Failure to explain adequately the sentence selected can be procedural error. See Carty, 520 F.3d at 993. The Supreme Court has explained that section 3553(c) requires a sentencing court to “set forth enough to satisfy the appellate court that [it] has considered the parties’ arguments and has a reasoned basis for exercising [its] own legal decisionmaking authority.” Rita v. United States, 127 S. Ct. 2456, 2468 (2007).

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