United States v. Ricky Sherwood, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3919

Background

Ricky Sherwood, age 18, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse for videotaping and sexually assaulting an intoxicated high-school classmate on a U.S. air base in Okinawa; he was prosecuted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act in the District of Minnesota.
At sentencing the district court granted a substantial downward variance and imposed 60 months imprisonment and five years supervised release.
The written judgment included two special supervised-release conditions requiring Sherwood to (j) provide any requested financial information to probation and (k) obtain probation approval before incurring new credit or opening credit lines.
Defense counsel objected at sentencing to the financial conditions; the court imposed them without prior notice or specific findings, saying they would remain until Sherwood "gets himself established as an adult."
The Eighth Circuit majority reversed the financial conditions as an abuse of discretion, finding they were unrelated to the offense, overbroad, vague, and imposed without the individualized inquiry and record findings required for special conditions.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the financial special conditions were properly imposed	Sherwood: conditions unrelated to offense, vague, overbroad, imposed without individualized findings or notice; abuse of discretion.	Government: objection insufficiently specific so review should be plain error; conditions permissible under court's discretion and Guidelines.	Court: review for abuse of discretion; reversed conditions j and k as an abuse of discretion and deleted them.
Whether lack of advance notice to defendant forecloses objection	Sherwood: no notice made effective challenge difficult; defense could have developed the record.	Government: general objection was adequate; notice not mandatory.	Court: lack of notice justified reviewing for abuse of discretion and weighs against upholding conditions.
Whether Guidelines §5D1.3 authorize these conditions absent fines/restitution	Sherwood: Guidelines provisions apply when fines/restitution/arrears exist; here none, so verbatim adoption inappropriate.	Government: courts have imposed similar financial conditions in varied contexts; conditions can aid supervision and rehabilitation.	Court: §5D1.3 conditions are recommendatory and tied to restitution/fines/debt; here copying them verbatim without tailoring was improper.
Whether conditions were sufficiently tailored and supported by record	Sherwood: no individualized inquiry or record findings; conditions overbroad (e.g., bar use of credit cards).	Government: district court could tailor during supervision; probation can limit undue effects; court reasonably sought to protect rehabilitation.	Court: district court failed to make individualized findings and gave only categorical rationale; conditions are vague/overbroad and therefore an abuse of discretion.

Key Cases Cited

United States v. Cooper, 171 F.3d 582 (8th Cir.) (district courts may impose special conditions related to §3553(a) factors)
United States v. Deatherage, 682 F.3d 755 (8th Cir.) (special conditions must relate to offense, history, or correctional needs)
United States v. Hart, 829 F.3d 606 (8th Cir.) (upholding financial conditions when related to money/debts and treatment obligations)
United States v. Camp, 410 F.3d 1042 (8th Cir.) (upheld similar financial conditions even without restitution order)
United States v. Wiedower, 634 F.3d 490 (8th Cir.) (district court must make individualized inquiry and record findings before imposing special conditions)
United States v. Behler, 187 F.3d 772 (8th Cir.) (upheld financial-information condition where money motivated offense)
United States v. Ervasti, 201 F.3d 1029 (8th Cir.) (upheld credit-restriction condition for fraud/tax offender with large restitution)
United States v. Thompson, 777 F.3d 368 (7th Cir.) (condemned overly vague financial-information conditions)