PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 22-6464

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Petitioner - Appellee,

v.

NATHANIEL WILLIAMS,

Respondent - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. W. Earl Britt, Senior District Judge. (5:21-hc-02244-BR)

Argued: September 14, 2022 Decided: November 17, 2022

Before RICHARDSON and HEYTENS, Circuit Judges, and MOTZ, Senior Circuit Judge.

Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge Heytens wrote the opinion, in which Senior Judge Motz joined. Judge Richardson wrote a dissenting opinion.

ARGUED: Jennifer Claire Leisten, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Genna Danelle Petre, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: G. Alan DuBois, Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Michael F. Easley, Jr., United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. USCA4 Appeal: 22-6464 Doc: 38 Filed: 11/17/2022 Pg: 2 of 15

TOBY HEYTENS, Circuit Judge:

Federal prisoners on the cusp of being released may be civilly committed if they are

“presently suffering from a mental disease or defect as a result of which [their] release

would create a substantial risk” to the person or property of others. 18 U.S.C. § 4246(d).

Here, the primary question is whether—in making such a risk assessment—a court must

consider any terms of supervision that would govern the prisoner’s conduct post release.

The answer, we hold, is yes. And because the record offers no assurances the district court

appropriately considered the terms of Nathaniel Williams’ supervised release before

ordering him committed, we vacate the court’s order and remand for further proceedings.

I.

A.

Williams has long struggled with mental illness and a proclivity to violent outbursts.

In 2017, Williams assaulted a security guard in Portland, Oregon—a federal crime because

it happened at a Social Security office. See 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1). Williams pleaded guilty

and was sentenced to just over four years in prison, to be followed by three years of

supervised release. The sentencing court imposed 13 standard and 14 special conditions of

supervised release, including that Williams “must take all mental health medications that

are prescribed by [his] treating physician” and “must participate in a mental health

treatment program.” JA 128.

For several years, Williams did not fare well in federal custody. In March 2019, he

was transferred to a medical center in Minnesota after failing to take medication,

experiencing mania and hallucinations, and assaulting his cellmate. Even after the transfer,

2 USCA4 Appeal: 22-6464 Doc: 38 Filed: 11/17/2022 Pg: 3 of 15

Williams continued to rack up incident reports and failed to reliably take prescribed

medication. After more than a year of new incidents—and Williams’ formal request to

withdraw from voluntary mental health treatment—the government successfully petitioned

to have Williams hospitalized under 18 U

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