US v. McLaurin: In 2013, McClaurin was sentenced to 120 months in prison, plus five years of supervised release, following a guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute more than 5kg of cocaine. At sentencing, the district court imposed four special conditions of supervised release. In the written judgement, the district court imposed more than a dozen other “standard” conditions, including ones that required McLaurin to notify his probation officer of a chance in residence or employment and submit to visits from his probation officer. McLaurin did not appeal his sentence.
He was released from prison in 2022. In 2024, he was alleged to have violated several conditions of his term of supervised release, including failing to appear for home visits and not provide notice of a chance of address. He admitted to those violations (all others were dismissed) and he was sentenced to 90 days in prison, followed by 42 more months of supervised release. McLaurin did not object to the revocation or sentence.
On appeal, a divided Fourth Circuit vacated the revocation order and remanded for additional proceedings. The conditions to which McLaurin admitted were imposed in violation of Rogers and, thus, nullities. The court rejected several procedural arguments from the Government as to why McLaurin could not challenge his revocation, regardless. First, the court rejected McLaurin’s argument that a waiver provision in his plea agreement covered the appeal, holding that a Rogers claim is “distinct from a challenge to imposed sentences” because such conditions “were never properly imposed.” In other words, “McLaurin is not appealing his 013 sentence or its related conditions” but “the 2024 revocation . . . based on invalid a null conditions.” Second, the court held the appeal was not untimely. Given that Rogers was handed down after McLaurin’s original sentence had become final, this revocation was the first “procedurally appropriate mechanism” for him to challenge it. Finally, the court rejected the Government’s reliance on cases holding that a defendant cannot challenge the substance of a condition in revocation proceedings, noting that none of them involved Rogers errors. Ultimately, the court concluded that prejudicial plain error had occurred that should be noticed and ordered that the case be remanded for resentencing.
Judge Niemeyer dissented, arguing that McLaurin was procedurally barred from raising the issue at this point, adding to the points addressed by the majority that McLaurin had invited error by admitting to violating the challenged conditions in exchange for other allegations being dismissed.
Congrats to the Defender office in Maryland on the win!
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