Sentencing – Revocation of Pretrial Release

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. LaShawn L. Wilks

Case No.: 21-2559

Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and ROVNER and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing – Revocation of Pretrial Release

This is an appeal from an order revoking pretrial release based on the defendant’s violation of his release conditions. We have not yet had occasion to address the legal standards for revocation or the standard of review on appeal. We do so here.

In June 2020 Lashawn Wilks was indicted in the Southern District of Illinois for possessing a firearm as a prohibited person. He was released on bond with strict conditions, including home confinement (with limited exceptions for employment and the like) and additional restrictions on his activities and associations. Several months later the grand jury issued a superseding indictment in an earlier-filed drug-trafficking case adding Wilks as a defendant and charging him with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and related drug charges. The new indictment also included the original firearm charge; his bond and release conditions were carried over to the new case.

Wilks obtained the district court’s permission to leave his home near Indianapolis to stay overnight in Centralia, Illinois, from July 2–6, 2021, for the purpose of attending two medical appointments, a family wedding, and religious services. But while there he did not confine himself to those activities. In the early morning hours of July 4, Wilks was at a bar in Mount Vernon, Illinois, where a fatal shooting occurred. Though he is not a suspect in the homicide, surveillance video shows that shortly before the shooting, he was talking with one of his codefendants who was also there. Wilks remained at the scene afterward, encountering law-enforcement officers when they arrived.

The government moved to revoke Wilks’s release as a sanction for violating his release conditions, which prohibited any contact with codefendants and also required him to promptly report any contact with law enforcement to his pretrial-services officer. The district judge held a hearing, viewed the video, and revoked Wilks’s release, though on grounds other than those argued by the government. Wilks appealed.

Revocation of pretrial release is governed by 18 U.S.C. § 3148. As we will explain, the judge did not hew to the statutory framework in making the revocation decision. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Reversed and remanded

Full Text

Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.