Thomas Steven Sanders v. United States

In a 2014 federal capital trial, Mr. Sanders was convicted of the 2010 kidnapping and killing twelveyear-old L.R. In accord with the jury’s verdict, the district court sentenced him to death on one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of use of a firearm in connection with a crime of violence (kidnapping) resulting in death. Mr. Sanders timely appealed, challenging his convictions and death sentences, and his appeal was argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2020. While the appeal was pending, on December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted Mr. Sanders’s death sentences to life in prison. Months later, on March 27, 2025, the Fifth Circuit decided Mr. Sanders’s appeal, vacating the use of a firearm conviction and otherwise affirming the judgment of the district court. Mr. Sanders’s appeal raised thirteen issues for review. Some of these concerned both his convictions and death sentences, but some concerned only the death sentences, which were no longer in effect by the time the Court of Appeals issued its opinion. Nonetheless, finding that “[the commutation] did not necessarily moot the issues Sanders has raised in his appeal,” the Fifth Circuit proceeded to decide the death-penalty-related issues. It did not explain why the issues were “not necessarily” moot, given that the President had commuted the death sentences Mr. Sanders had challenged. Mr. Sanders moved for panel rehearing, arguing that the rulings on the death-penalty-related issues should be withdrawn as advisory opinions, since he was no longer facing the federal death penalty, which