United States of America v. Arthur Shane Douville

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 23-4253
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
ARTHUR SHANE DOUVILLE,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at
Asheville. Martin K. Reidinger, Chief District Judge. (1:22-cr-00086-MR-WCM-1)
Submitted: May 31, 2024 Decided: July 16, 2024
Before HARRIS and BENJAMIN, Circuit Judges, and MOTZ, Senior Circuit Judge.
Dismissed and remanded with instructions by unpublished per curiam opinion.
ON BRIEF: Chiege O. Kalu Okwara, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Amy
Elizabeth Ray, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
ATTORNEY, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Arthur Douville pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute a quantity of
methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The district court sentenced
Douville to 188 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. The court
also ordered Douville to pay a special assessment of $100. Douville timely appealed but,
while the appeal was pending before this court, Douville died.
We have held that an appellant’s death “pending appeal of a criminal conviction
abates not only the appeal but all proceedings in the prosecution from its inception. In such
a case, the appeal is dismissed and the cause remanded to the district court with instructions
to vacate the judgment and to dismiss the indictment.” United States v. Dudley, 739 F.2d
175, 176 (4th Cir. 1984) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted), abrogated on
other grounds by Nelson v. Colorado, 581 U.S. 128 (2017). Further, in light of the Supreme
Court’s ruling in Nelson, 581 U.S. at 130, 134-39 (holding that due process is violated by
state statutes requiring defendants whose convictions have been reversed or vacated to
prove their innocence by clear and convincing evidence in order to obtain refund of costs,
fees, and restitution paid pursuant to invalid convictions), the death of a defendant during
pendency of a direct appeal also requires abatement of orders of restitution and forfeiture,
and a refund of any paid portion of a special assessment.
Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal as moot. We remand to the district court with
instructions to vacate Douville’s conviction and sentence, including the imposition of the
special assessment, to refund any portion of the special assessment that has already been
paid, and to dismiss the bill of information relating to the underlying conviction. We

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dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional
process.
DISMISSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS

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