## Facts

- Mark Wayne Russell, an applied systems engineer with no prior criminal record, used his home computer in Maryland to contact someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl in an internet chat room; the “girl” was an undercover D.C. police officer.
- During a later online chat, Russell performed a sex act via webcam and invited the purported minor to have sex with him.
- The undercover officer provided a Washington, D.C. address, stating the minor’s mother would be away that evening.
- Russell drove from Maryland to the D.C. address, parked, and emailed that he had arrived; he was arrested as he began to leave after waiting.
- Russell pleaded guilty to traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b).
- The district court sentenced Russell to 46 months’ imprisonment and 30 years of supervised release, and imposed a special supervised-release condition prohibiting him from possessing or using a computer “for any reason.”
- Russell appealed, challenging the 30-year supervised-release term and the absolute computer-use ban as substantively unreasonable.

## Issues

1. Whether a 30-year term of supervised release for a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b) is substantively unreasonable under deferential abuse-of-discretion review.
2. Whether a special condition barring a defendant from possessing or using a computer “for any reason” is substantively unreasonable because it is not properly tailored and restricts more liberty than necessary under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d).

## Decision

- The court affirmed the 30-year term of supervised release as substantively reasonable.
- The court vacated the blanket computer-use prohibition and remanded for resentencing limited to reconsideration and narrowing of that condition.
- The court held that the absolute computer ban imposed a greater deprivation of liberty than reasonably necessary given the ubiquity of computers for employment and ordinary life, even though some computer-related restriction was related to the offense.

## Legal Principles

- Substantive reasonableness of a sentence, including supervised release and its conditions, is reviewed for abuse of discretion under the post-*Gall* framework.
- Conditions of supervised release must be reasonably related to applicable sentencing factors and must involve no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve deterrence, protection of the public, and rehabilitation. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d).
- For sex offenses involving minors, lengthy supervised-release terms may fall within the range of reasonable sentencing choices in light of congressional policy and statutory authorization.
- A condition linked to internet-based offending may be permissible in concept, but a categorical computer prohibition is unreasonable where narrower measures (e.g., monitoring, limits on internet access, probation approval requirements) could address risk with less restriction.

## Conclusion

The D.C. Circuit upheld a lengthy supervised-release term for a defendant convicted of traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a perceived minor, but vacated an unconditional computer-use ban because it was broader than necessary under § 3583(d) and required narrower tailoring on remand.


United States v. Russell, 600 F.3d 631 (D.C. Cir. 2010)