United States Ninth Circuit

In a case in which the sentencing court ordered the defendant to pay restitution to his crime victims, due and payable "immediately," the district court's denial of a petition for habeas corpus challenging the order is reversed, as: 1) a sentencing court must consider the defendant's financial resources in setting a restitution payment schedule, and, if the defendant is unable to pay restitution immediately, the court cannot simply order "immediate" repayment and leave the details of the actual payment schedule to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) or the probation office; and 2) the restitution order against the petitioner impermissibly delegated to the BOP the court's obligation to set a payment schedule, and therefore the BOP lacked the authority to collect restitution payments from the petitioner.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/08/2012
• Published 05/08/2012

Judges

• Rakoff

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Douglas C. Erickson, Karla Hotis Delord