United States v. SUTTON, 1:21-cr-00598

Terence Sutton and Andrew Zabavsky were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice; Sutton was also convicted of second-degree murder of Karon Hylton-Brown.
Both defendants were sentenced to prison and ordered to pay special assessments ($300 for Sutton; $200 for Zabavsky).
After sentencing, both appealed their convictions, but while the appeals were pending, they received full and unconditional presidential pardons.
Following the pardons, the D.C. Circuit vacated their convictions and remanded the case for dismissal as moot, which the district court did.
Defendants moved for the return of their special assessments, and the government did not oppose.
The court found a portion of Sutton’s assessment ($100) had not yet been deposited into the U.S. Treasury, while the rest had.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Refund of Special Assessments after Pardon	Sutton & Zabavsky: Their assessments should be refunded because their convictions were vacated and cases dismissed as moot.	Government: Concurred that return is appropriate where funds remain available.	Court held that only untransferred funds ($100 of Sutton’s) could be returned; sums already in Treasury could not.

Knote v. United States, 95 U.S. 149 (1877) (a pardon does not affect property vested in the United States Treasury unless authorized by Congress)
In re Oliver North, 62 F.3d 1434 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (reiterating that property paid into the U.S. Treasury due to a criminal judgment cannot be returned after a pardon, absent congressional action)