US v. Newby, No. 21-4018 (4th Cir. 2024)
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In this case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, defendant Martrey Antwain Newby, who was initially sentenced for six non-violent drug crimes, appealed his sentence modification under the First Step Act of 2018. The district court had included discretionary conditions of supervised release in its written judgment that were not orally announced during the sentencing hearing, which was considered to be an error according to a precedent set by United States v. Rogers (2020). The main issue in this appeal was that the court during Newby's resentencing under the First Step Act, carried forward the same conditions of supervised release that were not orally announced in the initial sentencing hearing.
The Fourth Circuit concluded that the district court could not have imposed any new discretionary conditions of supervised release in Newby’s First Step Act proceeding, as the only type of modified sentence authorized by the First Step Act is a reduced one. The court also noted that Newby's conditions of supervised release which were never announced in his presence and were part of his written judgment, were nullities according to the Rogers precedent. The court argued that because these conditions were never imposed, they could not be carried forward in the district court's amended judgment.
The Fourth Circuit ultimately vacated the amended judgment and remanded for resentencing, upholding the principle that discretionary conditions of supervised release must be orally announced during the sentencing hearing. This decision may be specific to the unique circumstances of this case and may not necessarily apply to all cases involving the First Step Act or conditions of supervised release.
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