The Fifth Circuit vacated part of a district court judgment where standard supervised release conditions were not orally pronounced at sentencing. The court remanded the case for the district court to amend the written judgment to align with the oral pronouncement.
Walter J. Massey, Jr. appealed his sentence following the revocation of his supervised release. The parties agreed that the district court failed to orally pronounce most of the discretionary standard conditions of supervised release that were later included in the written judgment.
The court’s reasoning
The court found that the district court did not orally pronounce standard conditions two through nine and eleven through thirteen. Because Massey did not have an opportunity to object to these unpronounced conditions, the court reviewed the matter for an abuse of discretion. The court held that the written judgment conflicted with the oral pronouncement of the sentence.
What it means going forward
The judgment is vacated in part and remanded for the district court to amend its written judgment to remove conditions that were not orally pronounced.
