United States v. Harris
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Remanded
The Second Circuit held that the Government forfeited its objection to the untimely notice of appeal and therefore reached the merits of Daniel Harris’s challenge to the conditions of his supervised release. It remanded for the district court to vacate all thirteen standard conditions and three special conditions (mental-health, substance-abuse, and search conditions) because they were either not orally pronounced or impermissibly delegated authority to probation, while otherwise affirming the conviction and sentence.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether non-mandatory “Standard Conditions” of federal supervised release must be orally pronounced in the defendant’s presence at sentencing (or specifically incorporated by reference) or may instead be imposed for the first time in the written judgment.
Circuit Positions
District court must orally pronounce (or specifically incorporate by reference) any non-mandatory supervised-release conditions; written-judgment imposition alone violates Rule 43 and the defendant’s right to be present.
Standard conditions are implicit and need not be orally pronounced; they may be added only in the written judgment.
Conflict Summary
Until recently the Second Circuit held that the thirteen “Standard Conditions” were implicit in every term of supervised release and therefore could be added in the written judgment without oral announcement. Nine other circuits held the opposite—requiring express oral pronouncement or specific incorporation so the defendant can object. In this opinion the Second Circuit adopts the majority rule, thereby eliminating the split but expressly recounting the prior disagreement.