United States v. Joshua Hill, 889 F.3d 953

Joshua James Hill pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced to 84 months imprisonment.
After release, Hill violated supervised release; the district court revoked release and sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment followed by 24 months supervised release.
Hill appealed; his challenge to sentence length is moot because he completed his term of imprisonment before appeal.
The district court imposed a mandatory supervised-release condition requiring Hill to "participate in an approved program for domestic violence."
The domestic-assault charge underlying that recommendation had been dismissed in state court and was not proven in federal proceedings; the government produced no evidence of domestic assault.
The district court adopted the probation officer’s and government’s recommendation without explanation; the Eighth Circuit found the record insufficient to support the domestic-violence counseling condition.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Hill's challenge to the length of the revocation sentence is reviewable	Hill argued sentence was substantively unreasonable	Government argued sentence within guidelines and presumptively reasonable	Moot — appeal of sentence length dismissed because Hill completed his term before appeal
Whether mandatory supervised-release condition requiring domestic-violence programming was permissible given dismissed charge	Hill argued the condition lacked evidentiary support and was improperly imposed without explanation	Government/probation argued dismissed charge and petition allegations justified the condition	Vacated — district court plainly erred; condition unsupported by record and imposed without explanation; remanded

United States v. Ristine, 335 F.3d 692 (8th Cir. 2003) (plain-error review standard for unpreserved sentencing objections)
United States v. Schultz, 845 F.3d 879 (8th Cir. 2017) (standards for obtaining relief under plain-error review)
United States v. Durham, 618 F.3d 921 (8th Cir. 2010) (district court discretion in supervised-release conditions and § 3583(d) requirements)
United States v. Crume, 422 F.3d 728 (8th Cir. 2005) (§ 3583(d) factors for special conditions)
United States v. Bertucci, 794 F.3d 925 (8th Cir. 2015) (dismissed accusations insufficient to support domestic-violence counseling requirement)
United States v. Wisecarver, 644 F.3d 764 (8th Cir. 2011) (error in imposing unsupported conditions and requirement for explanation)
United States v. Abbouchi, 502 F.3d 850 (9th Cir. 2007) (plain error where only presentence report paragraph supported domestic-violence condition)
United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725 (1993) (when unpreserved error affects substantial rights)
Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461 (1997) (importance of explanation and record for sentencing decisions)
United States v. Perazza–Mercado, 553 F.3d 65 (1st Cir. 2009) (reasonable probability court would not have imposed condition absent adequate basis)