UN PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 19

- 4961

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , Plaintiff

- Appellee ,

v. RANDALL G. SCOTT , Defendant

- Appellant

.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina , at Columbia

. Terry L. Wooten, Senior District Judge. ( 3:19

- cr - 00426

- TLW

- 1 )

Submitted : March 11, 2022 Decided: April 21, 2022

Before NIEMEYER and HARRIS , Circuit Judges , and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed and remanded with instructions by un published per curiam opinion

.
Randall G. Scott, Appellant Pro Se. William Kenneth Witherspoon, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STAT ES ATTORNEY, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 19-4961 Doc: 36 Filed: 04/21/2022 Pg: 1 of 32 PER CURIAM : Randall G. Scott pleaded guilty to a superseding information charging him with possession of firearms and ammunition as a pe rson who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3), 924(a)(2). The district court sentenced Scott to 30 months’ imprisonment and two years of supervised release

. The court also ordered Scott to p ay a special assessment of $100. Scott appealed, and while the appeal was pending before this court , Scott died. For the reasons explained below, we dismiss Scott’s appeal as moot and remand to the district
court with instructions to vacate Scott’s conviction and sentence, including the special

assessment ; to refund any portion of the special assessment that has already been paid ; and

to dismiss the indictment and the superseding information

. We have recognized that an appellant’s “[d]eath pending ap peal 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 dismis s 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 , 137 S. Ct. 1249 (2017). An appellant’s death during the pendency of a crimin al appeal also requires an abatement of a special assessment and a refund of any already paid portion of a special assessment. See
United States v. Robertson , 980 F.3d 672, 674 (9th Cir. 2020); United States v. Brooks , 872 F.3d 78, 82 (2d Cir. 2017); Unit ed States v. Libous , 858 F.3d 64, 69 (2d Cir. 2017). USCA4 Appeal: 19-4961 Doc: 36 Filed: 04/21/2022 Pg: 2 of 33 Accordingly, we dismiss this appeal as moot and remand to the district court with
instructions to vacate Scott’s conviction and sentence, including the special assessment ; to refund any portion of the special assessment that has already been paid ; and to dismiss the
indictment and the superseding information

. We also deny as moot Scott’s motion to appoint counsel. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal con tentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS USCA4 Appeal: 19-4961 Doc: 36 Filed: 04/21/2022 Pg: 3 of 3