United States v. Deatherage (682 F.3d 755, 2012)

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

Justin Deatherage was charged with four counts of receiving and one count of possessing child pornography downloaded to his computer from July 14 to July 17, 2008. After pretrial release and numerous continuances, in November 2010 he pleaded guilty to the possession count, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). After a two-day contested hearing, the district court sentenced Deatherage to seventy months in prison and ten years of supervised release. He appeals four special conditions of supervised release. When a defendant properly objects at sentencing, we review special conditions for abuse of discretion. United States v. Stults, 575 F.3d 834, 850 (8th Cir.2009), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 1309, 175 L.Ed.2d 1093 (2010). Because the issues raised on appeal turn primarily on the district court’s credibility findings, which are virtually unassailable, we affirm.

I.

Our court has published more than twenty opinions reviewing challenges to special conditions of supervised release imposed in sentencing a variety of sex offenders. These issues recur in sex offender cases because a number of special conditions commonly imposed, including those recommended by the Sentencing Commission in § 5D1.3(d)(7) of the Guidelines, may result in “sweeping restrictions on important constitutional rights,” such as conditions severely restricting a defendant’s right to contact children, including his own; to view sexually-oriented materials protected by the First Amendment; or to access and use computers and the Internet. United States v. Crume, 422 F.3d 728, 733 (8th Cir.2005). Our standards of review are now well-established:

A district court has broad discretion to impose special conditions of supervised release, so long as each condition complies with the requirements set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d). Section 3583(d) first requires that a special condition must be reasonably related to the nature and circumstances of the offense of conviction, the defendant’s history and characteristics, the deterrence of criminal conduct, the protection of the public from further crimes of the defendant, and the defendant’s educational, vocational, medical, or other correctional needs.... Second, a special condition also must involve no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to deter criminal conduct, to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant, and to provide for the defendant’s educational, vocational, medical, and other correctional needs. Finally, a special condition must be consistent with any pertinent policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission. In fashioning a special condition of supervised release, a court must make an individualized inquiry into the facts and circumstances underlying a case and make sufficient findings on the record so as to ensure that the special condition satisfies the statutory requirements.

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