We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

THE SHORT ROCKET

Inmate has Right to Video at DHO

The 4th Circuit held last week that an inmate defending himself in a disciplinary proceeding, where he could lose good time as a punishment, has a qualified right of access to BOP video surveillance evidence and the qualified right to compel official review of such evidence. The Court relied on Wolff v. McDonnell, a 1974 Supreme Court decision defining the extent of inmates’ procedural due process rights in disciplinary proceedings.

Lennear v. Wilson, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 25340 (4th Cir. Aug. 23, 2019)

Transgender Inmate Has 8th Amendment Right to Surgery

The 9th Circuit last week held that an Idaho state inmate had shown that he suffered from gender dysphoria (believed he was a different gender than his body reflected), that his need for surgery to change his gender was a serious medical need, and that prison authorities had not provided that treatment despite knowledge of his ongoing and extreme suffering and medical needs. The Court rejected the State’s position that there was a “reasoned disagreement between qualified medical professionals. The Court emphasized that its analysis was individual to the inmate plaintiff, “and rested on the record of this case.”

Edmo v. Corizon, Inc., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 25330 (9th Cir. Aug. 23, 2019)

Murder Most Foul… But Not Violent

The 9th Circuit last week also held that 2nd-degree murder (18 USC §§ 1111 and 1153) is not a crime of violence that can support an 18 USC § 924(c) conviction. The Court held that because 2nd-degree murder can be committed recklessly, it does not categorically constitute a “crime of violence” under the elements clause (924(c)(3)(A)), and under the Supreme Court’s June United States v. Davis decision, the crime likewise cannot constitute a crime of violence under the residual clause.

Begay v. United States, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 25196 (9th Cir. Aug. 22, 2019)

Serving Mankind Has Its Limits

The 2nd Circuit ruled last week that a supervised release condition that a defendant perform 300 hours of community service a year during supervision exceeded the Guidelines and was not reasonably related to any of the applicable purposes of sentencing listed at 18 USC § 3553(a), and involved a “greater deprivation of liberty than needed to effectuate the goals of sentencing.” The Court concluded that USSG §5F1.3 advised sentences to not call for more than 400 hours of community service as a condition of supervised release.

What’s more, the community service, imposed on a defendant convicted of insurance fraud, was not reasonably related to any relevant sentencing factor and involved a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably needed to achieve the purposes of sentencing. The district court observed the defendant lived with his parents, has a young daughter, worked as an Uber and Lyft driver, and “was convicted of two serious crimes of fraud which adversely impacted the community at large.” But, the 2nd Circuit complained, the sentencing court did not explain how the defendant’s “particular circumstances‐‐his criminal history, his cooperation, the nature of his offense‐‐reasonably related to the need for community service.”

United States v. Parkins, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24563 (2nd Cir. Aug. 19, 2019)

– Thomas L. Root