U.S. v. Ford, 882 F.3d 1279 (2/23/18) (N.M.) (Published) The 10th finds to be ripe a challenge to a sex-offender-assessment supervised release condition and affirms the condition based on a 19-year-old sex offense. Mr Ford was sentenced to 20 years for various firearm-possession charges. Judge Parker imposed sex-offender supervised release conditions because 19 years ago when Mr. Ford was 17 he was convicted of a sex offense involving a 13-year-old girl. While the case was on appeal, Mr. Ford received a state life without parole (LWOP) sentence for killing a cell mate. On appeal, Mr. Ford challenged the conditions that he submit to a sex offender assessment and, if directed by the probation officer or treatment provider, a polygraph test. The 10th finds the assessment condition ripe for consideration, despite Mr. Ford's long federal sentence and LWOP state sentence. The 10th thinks it's simpler just to consider the issue now and it wasn't sufficiently certain Mr. Ford would never be on supervised release, given the possibility of overturning his state conviction or sentence on direct appeal or in future habeas proceedings. But the polygraph condition wasn't ripe yet because whether Mr. Ford would have to submit to the polygraph is contingent on treatment being recommended and polygraph testing being directed as part of that treatment.
The 10th finds no abuse of the district court's "broad" discretion to impose the assessment condition even though Mr. Ford has never been involved in any sex offense since he was 17. The 10th relies on: the fact that the sex offense victim was a minor; there was no record of any prior assessment or treatment; and Mr. Ford has been incarcerated almost continuously since his sex offense, "leaving him few chances to relapse."