Clinic Wins Rare Double Appeal

The Appellate Litigation Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law won again in Mangum v. Hallembaek on Wednesday.

The litigation follows a previous victory for the clinic, which sought to correct a Federal Bureau of Prisons mistake in interpreting the sentencing of Anthony Wayne Mangum, and resulted in the case being remanded. That winning appeal, brought by Clint Cowan ’16 and Travis Andrews ’16, appeared to spare their client 10 years in jail.

In the latest step in the case, third-year students Amanda Lineberry and Kendall Burchard represented Mangum at the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 25.

Mangum wasn’t disputing his Oklahoma state court convictions — which included conspiracy to distribute cocaine in federal court in North Carolina and, later, a felony assault and battery, along with other misdemeanors.

Instead, he disputed how the jail time was calculated. The state sentencing judge directed that Mangum’s federal and state sentences run concurrently, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons sought to apply them consecutively.

The clinic has now twice convinced the Fourth Circuit that the bureau was wrong.

The yearlong clinic, directed by Professor Stephen Braga, allows 12 students to engage in the hands-on practice of appellate litigation through actual cases before various federal circuit courts of appeals. The students are placed in teams and assigned to handle primary responsibility for work on at least one appellate case during the course of the year. In addition, the students work together as a small law firm to provide secondary-level assistance to each other.

Burchard and Lineberry argued the case only weeks into the semester.

“Kendall and I really had to hit the ground running for this argument, which was on the first day of the term for the Fourth Circuit,” Lineberry said.

“The team was so committed to securing a just outcome for Mr. Mangum, and Amanda did a phenomenal job of stressing his humanity,” Burchard added. “We are so pleased that his case will now receive the consideration it deserves.”

UPDATE: In May 2019, the Federal Bureau of Prisons granted Magnum’s request for his state and federal prison sentences to run concurrently.