UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. GUY COLLINS - Articles

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. GUY COLLINS

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Apr 1, 2026

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED: Jennifer Niles Coffin, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant.

Attorneys 2: ARGUED: Debra A. Breneman, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Attorneys 3: ON BRIEF: Jennifer Niles Coffin, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant.

Attorneys 4: ON BRIEF: Brian Samuelson, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Judge(s): MOORE, THAPAR, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Guy Collins has thrice moved for early termination of his eight-year term of supervised release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(1). The district court denied the first motion despite concluding that further supervision appeared unnecessary to deter Collins or to protect the public. The court denied the second motion in a one-paragraph order emphasizing that Collins had yet to complete at least fifty percent of his supervised-release term, pursuant to the district court’s custom. And the district court denied the third motion, resisting Collins’s argument that it had improperly relied on its fifty-percent custom and reasoning that requiring Collins to complete at least half of his term was necessary for deterrence and for protection of the public. Collins timely appealed the second and third orders. Because the district court abused its discretion in both, we VACATE the decisions of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings.

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