United States v. Maranda

• Decision Date: 31 July 2014
• Docket Number: No. 13–3917.,13–3917.
• Citation: 761 F.3d 689
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Darrin MARANDA, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

761 F.3d 689

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Darrin MARANDA, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 13–3917.

United States Court of Appeals,Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 28, 2014.

Decided July 31, 2014.

Jason M. Bohm, Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Urbana, IL, Joseph H. Hartzler, Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Nathaniel A. Nieman, Attorney, Moline, IL, for Defendant–Appellant.

Before FLAUM, MANION, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to decide when the clock starts on a criminal defendant's term of supervised release. Ordinarily, the answer is straightforward—supervised release begins once the defendant leaves prison and reenters society. Darrin Maranda's case, however, presents an unusual situation: a defendant who has completed his prison sentence, but who remains in federal custody while he awaits a determination of whether he will be civilly committed pursuant to the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The government argues that because the Adam Walsh Act stayed Maranda's release pending the outcome of his civil-commitment hearing, his term of supervised release did not begin until these proceedings were resolved in his favor and the stay was lifted. Maranda argues that his term of supervised release began on the date his criminal sentence expired, even though he remained in prison at that time. If Maranda is right, then his term of supervised release was over long before his civil-commitment proceedings ended—and long before he committed the violations of his conditions of release that he's now accused of.

The district court held that Maranda's term of supervised release did not begin until he was actually freed from custody. We agree. Read together, the relevant supervised-release provision, 18 U.S.C. § 3624(e), and the stay-of-release provision in the civil-commitment statute, 18 U.S.C. § 4248(a), establish that Maranda was not “released from imprisonment” while awaiting the outcome of his Adam Walsh Act proceedings. We therefore join two of the three circuits to have addressed this question, see United States v. Neuhauser, 745 F.3d 125 (4th Cir.2014), petition for cert. filed

(U.S. July 22, 2014) (No. 14–5372); United States v. Mosby, 719 F.3d 925 (8th Cir.2013), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 134 S.Ct. 905, 187 L.Ed.2d 790 (2014), and affirm the district court's revocation of Maranda's supervised release.

I. Background

Darrin Maranda committed his first sex offense in 1994, and he has been in and out of prison ever since. In February 1994, Maranda exposed himself to a six-year-old girl. Four days later, he exposed himself to a female cashier at a drive-through window and attempted to pull her into his car. He pleaded guilty to state charges of public indecency and was sentenced to home confinement and conditional discharge. Six months later, Maranda molested a six-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty to a state charge of criminal sexual assault and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released on parole in May 1998, taken back into custody a few months later due to his failure to gain employment, and then released again in October of that year.

While on parole, Maranda downloaded and stored child pornography on his computer. He was arrested by federal authorities, and in April 2000, he pleaded guilty to one count of receipt and one count of possession of child pornography before the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, in the case that is now before us. The district court sentenced him to a total of 40 months' imprisonment and five years of supervised release.

In December 2002, Maranda was released from federal prison and began serving his first term of supervision. However, in January 2005, he was arrested on a state charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse based on the allegation that he molested the nine-year-old daughter of his then-girlfriend. In June 2005, he pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery instead. Maranda's probation officer petitioned the district court to revoke his supervised release based on this state conviction as well as other violations of the conditions of his release; the district court did so in August 2005. The court then sentenced Maranda to another 30 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

Maranda began serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina (“FCI Butner”). This sentence was set to expire on March 16, 2008. But on March 10, the government filed a certificate in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina stating that Maranda was a “sexually dangerous person” under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, 18 U.S.C. § 4248, a federal civil-commitment statute that “authorizes the Department of Justice to detain a mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoner beyond the date the prisoner would otherwise be released.” United States v. Comstock, 560 U.S. 126, 129, 130 S.Ct. 1949, 176 L.Ed.2d 878 (2010). As a result, Maranda's release from prison was automatically stayed pending the outcome of his civil-commitment hearing. 18 U.S.C. § 4248(a) (“A certificate filed under this subsection shall stay the release of the person pending completion of procedures contained in this section.”); see also Comstock, 560 U.S. at 130, 130 S.Ct. 1949 (“When [a certificate] is filed, the statute automatically stays the individual's release from prison ... thereby giving the Government an opportunity to prove its claims at a hearing through psychiatric (or other) evidence....”).

The district court did not hold Maranda's civil-commitment hearing until more than four years later.¹ For the court to order Maranda's commitment under the Act, it had to find by clear and convincing evidence that he (1) had previously “engaged or attempted to engage in sexually violent conduct or child molestation,” (2) “suffer[ed] from a serious mental illness, abnormality, or disorder,” and (3) “as a result of” that mental illness, abnormality, or disorder, “would have serious difficulty in refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation if released.” 18 U.S.C. §§ 4247(a)(5)-(6), 4248(d); Comstock, 560 U.S. at 130, 130 S.Ct. 1949. During questioning at the hearing, Maranda affirmed that if he were released, he would “be subject to very intense supervised release conditions ... for a period of two years.” When asked whether he intended to comply with those conditions, Maranda responded, “Fully and to completeness.” To emphasize the point, his attorney recited eleven of the conditions out loud and asked Maranda whether he would comply with each one. Maranda answered affirmatively to each.

The district court ultimately ruled that Maranda was not a sexually dangerous person subject to commitment under the Act. The court found that Maranda met the first two requirements: (1) he had been convicted in 1994 for criminal sexual assault, and (2) he had been diagnosed with pedophilia and antisocial personality disorder. However, the court concluded that the government failed to prove that Maranda would have serious difficulty refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation if released. The court's written opinion showed that in reaching this determination, the court considered Maranda's affirmation that he would be subject to conditions of supervised release for two years—including conditions tailored to Maranda's background as a sex offender—and Maranda's apparent willingness to comply with those conditions. The court also stated that “[w]ere Maranda to be released unconditionally, the court might be persuaded that Maranda poses a significant likelihood of reoffending.” Order at 12, United States v. Maranda, No. 5:08–HC–2033–H (E.D.N.C. Sept. 6, 2012), ECF No. 58.

On September 6, 2012, the district court entered judgment in favor of Maranda, lifted the stay of release, and ordered Maranda to report to the Central District of Illinois to begin serving his term of supervised release. Pursuant to the government's request, the court once again stayed Maranda's release until the denial of the government's motion to amend the judgment. The district court denied that motion, and Maranda was released from FCI Butner on December 21, 2012.

Maranda returned to Illinois and reported for supervision. Three days later, he began receiving phone calls from another convicted sex offender who he had met at FCI Butner. Over the next couple of months, Maranda had 20 conversations with this inmate, some of which revealed that Maranda had been in contact with another convicted sex offender, as well. These communications were in violation of the condition of Maranda's release that he not associate with any person convicted of a felony without his probation officer's permission. Accordingly, in October 2013, Maranda's probation officer petitioned the district court in the Central District of Illinois to revoke his supervised release for a second time.

Maranda filed a motion to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction. He argued that his term of supervised release began on the day his 30–month sentence of imprisonment ended—that is, March 16, 2008—even though he remained in prison during the pendency of his civil-commitment proceedings. That being the case, Maranda argued, his two-year term of supervised release expired on March 16, 2010, and he was no longer subject to the probation office's supervision when he participated in the phone calls. The government disputed Maranda's theory, maintaining that his term of supervised release began on the day that he was actually released from custody. The government also argued that Maranda should be barred from asserting this theory because he avoided civil commitment only by taking a contrary position before the North Carolina district court. By now claiming that his term of supervised...