Background
Christopher Columbus Kennedy was convicted in February two thousand nineteen of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. He was sentenced to sixty-six months of imprisonment followed by a three-year term of supervised release with thirteen standard conditions. In April two thousand twenty-five, the United States Probation Office petitioned for a warrant alleging violations. Kennedy admitted to four violations at a revocation hearing. The district court revoked his supervised release and sentenced him to six months of imprisonment followed by a thirty-month term of supervised release. The court orally adopted the standard conditions listed in the original judgment without reciting them word-for-word. Neither the government nor Kennedy’s counsel raised objections after the sentence was imposed.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied the plain error standard of review because Kennedy had an opportunity to object before the district court but failed to do so. The court noted that a district court need not recite conditions word-for-word to put a defendant on notice. Instead, the court can orally adopt a written list of proposed conditions. In this case, the district court orally adopted the conditions listed in the original judgment. The court’s reference to the judgment order left little doubt about which document it intended to incorporate. The original judgment had been in the record for over six years, giving Kennedy and his counsel ample time to review it and object. There was no conflict between the oral pronouncement and the written judgment.
What it means going forward
This decision reinforces that district courts may satisfy the requirement to orally pronounce conditions of supervised release by adopting written conditions by reference, provided the defendant had notice and an opportunity to object.