United States v. Woods

547 F.3d 515, 2008 WL 4717108
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 28, 2008
Docket07-51491
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 547 F.3d 515 (United States v. Woods) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Woods, 547 F.3d 515, 2008 WL 4717108 (5th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

547 F.3d 515 (2008)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Briane Nicole WOODS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 07-51491.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

October 28, 2008.

*516 Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued), San Antonio, TX, for U.S.

Dusty Gallivan (argued), Gallivan & Associates, Odessa, TX, for Woods.

Before KING, HIGGINBOTHAM, and WIENER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Defendant-appellant Briane Nicole Woods appeals the district court's imposition of a discretionary condition of supervised release forbidding her from residing with any person to whom she is not ceremonially married or related by blood. We conclude that the condition is overbroad and involves a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes of supervised release. Thus, the district court abused its discretion by imposing a supervised release condition that fails to meet a requirement set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d). We vacate the condition of supervised release, affirm the remainder of the sentence, and remand.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Woods appeals the district court's imposition of a discretionary condition of supervised release prohibiting her from residing "with anyone that [she is] not ceremonially married to or related to by blood during the term of [her] supervised release" (the "residency condition"). On August 7, 2007, a jury found Woods guilty of two counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and one count of engaging in conduct causing bodily injury to another with intent to retaliate, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1513(b)(2). Woods does not dispute her conviction.

Woods's sole argument on appeal challenges the district court's authority to impose the residency condition. On December 13, 2007, the district court sentenced Woods to three concurrent terms of 120 months of imprisonment. The court also sentenced Woods to concurrent supervised release terms of five years on Count I and three years each on Counts II and IV. The court imposed many conditions of supervised release. Among these conditions, the court ordered Woods to refrain from associating with anyone who is a convicted felon or anyone engaged in criminal activity. The court also mandated that Woods have no contact with co-defendant Laquisha Powell or with Billy Beck, Carol Lawrence, or Bobby Washington, the other individuals involved in Woods's underlying criminal activity. Finally, the district court imposed the residency condition.[1]

At sentencing, Woods's attorney objected to the residency condition on the basis that it deprived Woods of her constitutional right to liberty. Responding to the objection, the district court mentioned that the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors apply and that the purpose of supervised release is to help people to reintegrate into society. It then justified the residency condition on the ground that Woods needs stability in her home. It recited a number of destabilizing factors in Woods's life that ostensibly led to her criminal behavior, including her lack of a father figure, her mother's decision to have two children with a man other than Woods's father, the detrimental influence of Woods's peer *517 group, Woods's decision not to marry the father of her one-year-old child and her unborn baby, his failure to provide support, her prolonged drug and alcohol abuse, and her lack of steady employment. Notably, at the time Woods was arrested in March 2007, she was living with her mother.

Woods timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II. DISCUSSION

When the defendant objects at sentencing to the district court's imposition of a discretionary condition of supervised release, we review for abuse of discretion. United States v. Ferguson, 369 F.3d 847, 852-53 (5th Cir.2004); United States v. Paul, 274 F.3d 155, 164-65 (5th Cir.2001). A district court abuses its discretion when it imposes a discretionary supervised release condition that deviates from the requirements defined in § 3583(d).

Section 3583(d) grants the district court wide discretion to impose any supervised release condition that it considers to be appropriate.[2] That discretion is circumscribed by three specific requirements that the condition must meet. The first requirement is that the condition must be "reasonably related to the factors set forth in section 3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), and (a)(2)(D)." § 3583(d)(1). These factors include: "the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant," § 3553(a)(1); the need "to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct," § 3553(a)(2)(B); the need "to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant," § 3553(a)(2)(C); and the need "to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner," § 3553(a)(2)(D). Even if the condition is reasonably related to those sentencing factors, under the second requirement, it "cannot involve a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve the latter three statutory goals." Paul, 274 F.3d at 165 (citing § 3583(d)(2)). Finally, the third requirement mandates that the condition must be "consistent with any pertinent policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission pursuant to 28 U.S.C. [§] 994(a)." § 3583(d)(3).

Under these requirements, courts of appeals have affirmed discretionary conditions restricting a defendant's intimate associations where the district court appropriately defined the prohibited association and articulated a direct connection between the condition and a sentencing goal. See United States v. Smith, 436 F.3d 307, 311 (1st Cir.2006) (affirming condition directing defendant to stay away from minor daughter because, inter alia, it served to protect public safety from defendant's agitated entries into schools in *518 search of his daughter); United States v. Rodriguez, 178 Fed.Appx. 152, 158-59 (3d Cir.2006) (unpublished) (affirming condition prohibiting defendant from having contact with her husband because district court found that defendant committed crimes at her husband's behest); United States v. Brandenburg, 157 Fed.Appx. 875, 878-80 (6th Cir.2005) (unpublished) (affirming condition prohibiting defendant from co-habitating with any female because defendant "has a history of abusing women with whom he lives" and narrower, previously imposed condition proved "inadequate to prevent the defendant from committing domestic violence"); United States v. Bortels, 962 F.2d 558, 559-60 (6th Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
547 F.3d 515, 2008 WL 4717108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-woods-ca5-2008.