United States v. Daniel R. Williams

Daniel Williams pled guilty, pursuant to an agreement with the United States Attorney, to one count of transmitting a communication in interstate commerce containing a threat to injure the person of another, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875 (c). Williams was sentenced in June 2002 to fifteen months in prison — amounting to time served as he had been in federal custody since March 2000 — and to three years of supervised release. As a condition of Williams’ supervised release, the district judge required that he

We hold that this condition was improperly imposed and therefore vacate that aspect of the district court’s sentence and remand for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

While Williams was a student at Portland Community College, according to the presentence report, one of his teachers reported to the campus police that Williams “several months earlier ... had expressed a desire to start a relationship with her. She declined his offer.” What prompted the teacher’s police report were two telephone calls from Williams asking her to discuss “what I talked to you about last term” and to meet him at a restaurant. A police officer advised the teacher to tell Williams, if he called…