United States v. Anita Green -Northern District of Ohio at Toledo
Split Score
What is a Split Score?
This score (0-100) indicates how likely this case is to be reviewed by the Supreme Court based on:
Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed in Part
Two defendants, Anita Green and her daughter Amanda Hovanec, challenged their federal sentences arising from a conspiracy to import and use the animal tranquilizer etorphine to murder Hovanec’s husband. The Sixth Circuit affirmed both prison sentences but reversed and remanded the district court’s restitution order against Green, holding that purely psychological injuries are not ‘bodily injury’ under 18 U.S.C. § 3663 unless the mental harm produces physical symptoms.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether the term “bodily injury” in 18 U.S.C. § 3663(b)(2) (Victim and Witness Protection Act) encompasses purely mental/psychological harm unaccompanied by physical manifestations.
Circuit Positions
‘Bodily injury’ excludes purely psychological harm; emotional harm must manifest in physical symptoms to qualify.
‘Bodily injury’ can include psychological or emotional harm even without physical manifestation (no plain-error to award restitution).
Conflict Summary
Several circuits (4th, 6th, 8th, 9th) hold that ‘bodily injury’ is limited to physical or corporeal harm (although the 6th allows recovery when the mental distress produces physical symptoms). By contrast, the 7th and 10th Circuits have upheld restitution awards for purely psychological harm, concluding it was not plain error (and thus permissible) to treat mental injury alone as ‘bodily injury.’