United States v. Cynthia Montoya

Summary

The Ninth Circuit en banc held that a district court must orally pronounce all discretionary conditions of supervised release—including those labeled "standard" under U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(c)—to protect a defendant's due process right to be present at sentencing, overruling in part *United States v. Napier*, 463 F.3d 1040 (9th Cir. 2006). The pronouncement requirement is satisfied if the defendant receives advance notice of proposed discretionary conditions and the court orally incorporates them by reference at the hearing, providing an opportunity to object. The court vacated only the unpronounced standard conditions and remanded for the limited purpose of allowing the district court to cure the error by orally pronouncing any such conditions it chooses to impose and giving the defendant a chance to object.

Holdings

1. A district court must orally pronounce all discretionary conditions of supervised release, including those referred to as 'standard' in U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(c), to protect a defendant's due process right to be present at sentencing. The failure to do so violates due process.
2. The pronouncement requirement is satisfied if the defendant is informed of the proposed discretionary conditions before the sentencing hearing and the district court orally incorporates them by reference, giving the defendant an opportunity to object.
3. Montoya did not forfeit her challenge because she was not given an opportunity to object; the district court did not orally pronounce the standard conditions or incorporate them by reference, so she did not know they would be imposed until the written judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court's failure to orally pronounce the standard conditions of supervised release violated Montoya's due process right to be present at sentencing.
2. What procedure district courts must follow to satisfy the oral pronouncement requirement for discretionary conditions of supervised release.

Disposition

remanded