Filed: Jan. 05, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 15-4214 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. JUDE ELIGWE, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt. Peter J. Messitte, Senior District Judge. (8:07-cr-00160-PJM-2) Submitted: December 21, 2015 Decided: January 5, 2016 Before WILKINSON, SHEDD, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Dismissed and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. Ruth J. Vernet, RUT
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 15-4214 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. JUDE ELIGWE, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt. Peter J. Messitte, Senior District Judge. (8:07-cr-00160-PJM-2) Submitted: December 21, 2015 Decided: January 5, 2016 Before WILKINSON, SHEDD, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Dismissed and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. Ruth J. Vernet, RUTH..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 15-4214
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff – Appellee,
v.
JUDE ELIGWE,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
Maryland, at Greenbelt. Peter J. Messitte, Senior District
Judge. (8:07-cr-00160-PJM-2)
Submitted: December 21, 2015 Decided: January 5, 2016
Before WILKINSON, SHEDD, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.
Dismissed and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Ruth J. Vernet, RUTH J. VERNET, LLC, Rockville, Maryland, for
Appellant. Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, Deborah
Johnston, Assistant United States Attorney, Sumon Dantiki,
Special Assistant United States Attorney, Greenbelt, Maryland,
for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Jude Eligwe appeals from the district court’s judgment
revoking his term of supervised release and sentencing him to
four months’ incarceration with no further supervised release.
On appeal, Eligwe challenges one of the four violations that
served as a basis for the revocation, and asserts that the
sentence was plainly unreasonable. While this appeal was
pending, Eligwe was released from imprisonment. As a result,
the government asserts that Eligwe’s appeal is moot. See United
States v. Hardy,
545 F.3d 280, 284-85 (4th Cir. 2008) (noting
that appellant’s release from prison during pendency of appeal
mooted challenge to revocation of supervised release and
imposition of prison sentence). To avoid dismissal for mootness
in this circumstance, a defendant has the burden of
demonstrating a collateral consequence, “‘some concrete and
continuing injury,’” sufficient to meet Article III’s
case-or-controversy requirement.
Id. at 283 (quoting Spencer v.
Kemna,
523 U.S. 1, 7 (1998)). This burden is high, because
“courts considering challenges to revocations of supervised
release have universally concluded that such challenges also
become moot when the term of imprisonment for that revocation
ends.”
Id. at 284.
Eligwe argues that he has met his burden of showing the
requisite injury because he is in the custody of U.S.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the outcome of this
appeal is likely to have an impact on his immigration status.
As this court has explained, “for a controversy to be moot, it
must lack at least one of the three required elements of Article
III standing: (1) injury in fact, (2) causation, or
(3) redressability.” Townes v. Jarvis,
577 F.3d 543, 546-47
(4th Cir. 2009). For an injury to satisfy the redressability
prong, it must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that
the injury will be redressed by a decision in Eligwe’s favor.
Id. at 547. Given Eligwe’s underlying conviction for conspiracy
to commit bank robbery, we find that the likelihood that Eligwe
will avoid removal by succeeding in this appeal to be
speculative. Accordingly, he has failed to meet his burden of
demonstrating a collateral consequence, and we dismiss his
appeal as moot.
Eligwe also asserts that the district court’s written
judgment contains a clerical error. Specifically, the court
orally found Eligwe in violation of four specific conditions of
his supervised release. Two other potential violations were
expressly not pursued by the government, yet the judgment
reflects that one of those potential violations was mistakenly
listed in the judgment under “Additional Violations.” The
violation in question alleged that Eligwe was issued a criminal
citation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland for confining an
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unattended child. The government concedes this error, but
asserts that Eligwe should seek correction by filing a motion
under Fed. R. Crim. P. 36. We find that the interests of
judicial economy weigh in favor of remand from this court for
correction of the judgment to remove this unpursued violation.
We therefore dismiss as moot and remand for correction of
the clerical error in the judgment. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
presented in the materials before this court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED AND REMANDED
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