United States v. Sandra Dennis ( 2022 )


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  • USCA11 Case: 21-10316     Date Filed: 02/16/2022   Page: 1 of 17
    [PUBLISH]
    In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Eleventh Circuit
    ____________________
    No. 21-10316
    ____________________
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Plaintiff-Appellee,
    versus
    SANDRA DENNIS,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    ____________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Northern District of Georgia
    D.C. Docket No. 1:18-cr-00302-ELR-1
    ____________________
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 2 of 17
    2                      Opinion of the Court                 21-10316
    Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, JORDAN, and ANDERSON, Cir-
    cuit Judges.
    WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge:
    This appeal concerns the notice that a probationer must re-
    ceive before her probation can be revoked. One of the mandatory
    conditions of Sandra Dennis’s probation for stealing social security
    funds was that she not commit any new state crimes. A police of-
    ficer later investigated Dennis for theft of services after he sus-
    pected that she took food from a restaurant without paying. Dur-
    ing a heated exchange with the officer, Dennis repeatedly diso-
    beyed his commands. Based on this encounter, a probation officer
    provided written notice that Dennis had committed theft, battery,
    and felony obstruction. After a hearing, the district court found that
    Dennis committed misdemeanor obstruction and sentenced her to
    a term of supervised release. Dennis objected to that sentence on
    the ground that she had not been given written notice that her pro-
    bation could be revoked for committing misdemeanor obstruction.
    Because misdemeanor obstruction is a lesser included offense of
    felony obstruction, the notice given to Dennis satisfied the require-
    ments of “due process of law.” See U.S. CONST. amend. V. We af-
    firm.
    I. BACKGROUND
    After the United States filed an information against Sandra
    Dennis alleging one count of theft of government property for
    knowingly converting to her use $21,433 of social security
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022      Page: 3 of 17
    21-10316                Opinion of the Court                         3
    payments, see 
    18 U.S.C. § 641
    , she pleaded guilty. The district court
    sentenced her to 24 months of probation. The district court also
    required, as a condition of her probation, that Dennis not commit
    any state crime.
    Shortly before Dennis completed her sentence, her proba-
    tion officer filed a petition to revoke her probation for violating her
    “conditions of supervision.” The petition alleged that Dennis vio-
    lated the condition that she not commit any state crime based on
    an interaction she had with a police officer. It “alleged[] [that Den-
    nis] committed the new crimes of Willful Obstruction of Law En-
    forcement by Threats or Violence (felony), Simple Battery on a Po-
    lice Officer (misdemeanor), and Theft of Services (misdemeanor)
    in Henry County, Georgia.” The petition described Dennis’s ob-
    structive conduct as follows:
    According to Henry County, Georgia, Police Officer
    Worrell, officers were called to the Silver Bay Seafood
    restaurant located in Stockbridge, Georgia, in refer-
    ence to a theft of services. Officer Worrell determined
    that Dennis had obtained food from the restaurant
    without paying for it, and he provided Dennis with
    multiple opportunities to pay for the food or other-
    wise make amends with the business. Dennis refused
    to cooperate and would not follow any of the officer’s
    instructions. Officer Worrell attempted to place Den-
    nis in handcuffs, at which time she attempted to strike
    Officer Worrell and a physical confrontation ensued.
    Dennis was eventually subdued and arrested. Accord-
    ing to Henry County Sheriff’s Office, Dennis posted a
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 4 of 17
    4                      Opinion of the Court                 21-10316
    $5,000.00 property bond and was being released from
    jail as of December 2, 2020.
    Based on the petition, the district court ordered the issuance of a
    warrant to arrest Dennis and ordered Dennis to “show cause why
    Probation . . . should not be revoked.”
    The district court later convened a revocation hearing at
    which the parties gave evidence on the allegations. The govern-
    ment reiterated its allegation that Dennis committed three state
    crimes: “willful obstruction of law enforcement by threats or vio-
    lence, felony; simple battery on a police officer, that’s a misde-
    meanor; and theft of services, misdemeanor.” The district court
    asked Dennis if she “ha[d] . . . received a written copy of these al-
    leged violations” and Dennis responded that she had. Dennis also
    responded that she would be denying the allegations that formed
    the basis for the alleged violation.
    The government called Officer Worrell to testify about the
    encounter and to explain the video from the body camera he was
    wearing at the time. Officer Worrell testified that the cashier at the
    restaurant informed him that, after an order was placed over the
    phone, a young woman and an older man walked into the restau-
    rant, checked the food, and took the food without paying. Officer
    Worrell then called the cellphone number used to place the order
    and spoke with Dennis’s husband, who said that he thought his
    wife had paid for the food. After Officer Worrell spoke with her
    husband, Dennis told Officer Worrell that they were not going to
    pay for the food, but that they would return the food instead.
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 5 of 17
    21-10316               Opinion of the Court                         5
    Dennis later arrived at the restaurant. Officer Worrell testi-
    fied that, after Dennis stated again that she would not pay for the
    food, he asked Dennis for her driver’s license so that he could pos-
    itively identify her. Despite asking her multiple times, Dennis re-
    fused to give Officer Worrell her license. And after Officer Worrell
    asked Dennis several times to get off her phone, Dennis failed to
    comply. After Officer Worrell grabbed the phone out of her hand,
    Dennis “started swinging.” The government rested its evidence on
    Officer Worrell’s testimony.
    Dennis testified in her own behalf. Dennis admitted that she
    had in her right hand a cellphone that Officer Worrell “snatched.”
    But she maintained that she did not swing at him. Dennis testified
    that she raised her hand to put on her glasses, after which Officer
    Worrell “thr[ew] [her] against the wall.” She also testified that she
    neither hit nor attempted to hit Officer Worrell “at any point.” And
    she asserted that her hand appeared “balled up” to Officer Worrell
    because she had attempted to put her mask over her face.
    Dennis admitted that Officer Worrell “ask[ed] for [her]
    driver’s license” twice. She admitted that she told him “no” because
    she “need[ed] [her] license to drive home.” She acknowledged that
    Officer Worrell “explain[ed] to [her] that if [she] didn’t give him
    [her] license, . . . [h]e would have to arrest [her].” But Dennis re-
    fused to comply. Dennis also admitted that Officer Worrell asked
    her “repeatedly” to get off the phone when he was attempting to
    speak with her and she again refused to comply.
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316          Date Filed: 02/16/2022      Page: 6 of 17
    6                        Opinion of the Court                   21-10316
    During closing arguments, defense counsel argued that
    Dennis “never did anything that equates to felony obstruction.”
    She maintained that felony obstruction was the charge at issue.
    And she argued that felony obstruction “requires something more
    than a misdemeanor obstruction. She is alleged to have committed
    felony obstruction, and she did not do that.”
    In response to that argument, the district court asked de-
    fense counsel if it was her “position that [Dennis] could not be
    found to have committed misdemeanor obstruction based on the
    way that the alleged violation is pled.” Defense counsel responded
    in the affirmative and argued that Dennis was “entitled to written
    notice of what the allegations are against her.” And she argued that
    there was “no allegation of misdemeanor obstruction,” so Dennis
    could not “be found to have committed that [offense].”
    When the government presented its argument, the district
    court asked two questions related to the obstruction allegation.
    First, the district court stated that the petition “specifically says fel-
    ony obstruction,” and asked the government whether its “position
    [was] that the evidence supports felony obstruction.” Second, the
    district court asked the government if the district court could find
    that Dennis committed misdemeanor obstruction “for not provid-
    ing the phone and the driver’s license,” “[e]specially considering
    that the pleading only says felony obstruction.”
    The government responded that the evidence supported
    both felony and misdemeanor obstruction. And the government
    argued that “the violation is that she committed a new crime,” and
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 7 of 17
    21-10316               Opinion of the Court                         7
    “misdemeanor obstruction is a new crime.” “So,” the government
    reasoned, if the district court were to find that Dennis committed
    misdemeanor obstruction, it “c[ould] still revoke her” probation.
    On the specific allegations, the district court could not “find
    that [Dennis] committed theft.” And the district court found that
    there was not enough evidence that Dennis committed battery or
    felony obstruction. The district court reasoned that, although it
    found that Officer Worrell’s testimony was highly credible and be-
    lieved Officer Worrell’s testimony that Dennis had raised her hand,
    it could not find from the video whether Dennis’s purpose was to
    pull up her mask or to do violence.
    The district court found that Dennis “definitely . . . commit-
    ted the act of misdemeanor obstruction in not providing [her] li-
    cense and in refusing to get off the phone.” The district court found
    that Dennis’s attitude—that she “d[id] not have to listen to or re-
    spect” Officer Worrell—“c[ame] across on th[e] video.” The district
    court rejected defense counsel’s argument that Dennis lacked
    “proper notice just because the petition says felony obstruction.”
    The district court reasoned that “[t]he petition clearly sets forth
    that the prohibited conduct is committing a new offense,” and “the
    description of felony obstruction is just additional information.”
    The district court concluded that there was no problem with
    “find[ing] a reduced charge of the felony obstruction in the form of
    misdemeanor obstruction.”
    The district court found that Dennis violated her probation,
    revoked it on the ground that she committed a new offense, and
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316         Date Filed: 02/16/2022      Page: 8 of 17
    8                       Opinion of the Court                   21-10316
    sentenced her to two years of supervised release. Defense counsel
    again objected to the finding of misdemeanor obstruction on the
    ground that Dennis had not been given proper notice of that alle-
    gation.
    II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
    We review questions of law de novo. See United States v.
    Brown, 
    364 F.3d 1266
    , 1268 (11th Cir. 2004).
    III. DISCUSSION
    The Fifth Amendment provides that “[n]o person shall be
    . . . deprived of . . . liberty[] . . . without due process of law.” U.S.
    CONST. amend. V. The revocation of probation is a deprivation of
    liberty that entitles the probationer to due process. Gagnon v. Scar-
    pelli, 
    411 U.S. 778
    , 782 (1973). But because the revocation of pro-
    bation is “not a stage of a criminal prosecution,” 
    id.,
     “the full pan-
    oply of rights due a defendant” in criminal prosecutions “does not
    apply to . . . revocations” of probation, see Morrissey v. Brewer,
    
    408 U.S. 471
    , 480 (1972); Gagnon, 
    411 U.S. at 782
    .
    Revocation proceedings are more “flexible” than criminal
    prosecutions, and it is improper to equate the two. Morrissey, 
    408 U.S. at 489
    . Although “[p]robationers have an obvious interest in
    retaining their conditional liberty,” courts must “avoid[] the impo-
    sition of rigid requirements that would threaten the informal na-
    ture of probation revocation proceedings.” See Black v. Romano,
    
    471 U.S. 606
    , 611 (1985).
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 9 of 17
    21-10316               Opinion of the Court                         9
    Because the proceeding involves “the revocation of the con-
    ditional liberty created by probation,” 
    id. at 610
    , “the question re-
    mains what process is due,” Morrissey, 
    408 U.S. at 481
    . Before pro-
    bation can be revoked, due process entitles the probationer to
    “written notice of the claimed violations of” probation; disclosure
    of the evidence against him; the “opportunity to be heard in person
    and to present witnesses and documentary evidence”; “the right to
    confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses”; a neutral and de-
    tached hearing body; and “a written statement by the factfinders as
    to the evidence relied on and reasons for revoking []probation.”
    Gagnon, 
    411 U.S. at 786
     (quoting Morrissey, 
    408 U.S. at 489
    ). These
    rights have also been incorporated into the Federal Rules of Crim-
    inal Procedure, see FED. R. CRIM. P. 32.1(b)(2), and we construe
    them harmoniously.
    At issue here is whether the petition to revoke Dennis’s pro-
    bation constituted “written notice of the claimed violations” of her
    probation. Gagnon, 
    411 U.S. at 786
     (internal quotation marks omit-
    ted); see also FED. R. CRIM. P. 32.1(b)(2)(A) (requiring “written no-
    tice of the alleged violation”). Notice “give[s] the charged party a
    chance to marshal the facts in his defense and to clarify what the
    charges are, in fact.” Wolff v. McDonnell, 
    418 U.S. 539
    , 564 (1974).
    But—consistent with the Supreme Court’s admonition against the
    imposition of rigidity—our predecessor Court has explained that
    “[a] revocation hearing need not be as rigid or as formal as a crim-
    inal trial either with respect to notice or specification of charges.”
    United States v. Evers, 
    534 F.2d 1186
    , 1188 (5th Cir. 1976).
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 10 of 17
    10                      Opinion of the Court                 21-10316
    Dennis argues that the district court “surprised” her by
    “finding evidence that she had committed misdemeanor obstruc-
    tion and revoking her probation on that basis.” Dennis maintains
    that this finding deprived her of notice and “an opportunity to con-
    test” the finding in violation of the Due Process Clause and Federal
    Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.1. She argues that the petition ade-
    quately notified her only of the allegations that she had committed
    “felony obstruction, simple battery, and theft.” And she asserts that
    the petition failed to give her “adequate notice of the elements of ”
    misdemeanor obstruction.
    We disagree. As the government argues, “Dennis had notice
    of the state obstruction statute at issue, and in being warned that
    she was charged with committing the felony-level offense, she re-
    ceived adequate notice to defend against the misdemeanor-level of-
    fense.” Dennis received all the notice she was due.
    Two principles lead us to that conclusion. First, as we have
    explained, the processes and rights to which one is entitled in rev-
    ocation proceedings are less rigid and plentiful than the processes
    and rights to which one is entitled in criminal prosecutions. See
    Morrissey, 
    408 U.S. at 480, 489
    ; Gagnon, 
    411 U.S. at 782
    ; Evers, 
    534 F.2d at 1188
    . Second, even the process due to defendants in crimi-
    nal prosecutions does not require the specific identification of lesser
    included offenses in charging instruments if the greater offense is
    adequately identified and explained. See Nave v. Helms, 
    845 F.2d 963
    , 964 (11th Cir. 1988) (“Regardless of the charge of a criminal
    indictment, the defendant is generally subject to conviction under
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 11 of 17
    21-10316                Opinion of the Court                        11
    that charge or any lesser included offense.”); see also FED. R. CRIM.
    P. 31(c) (providing that “[a] defendant may be found guilty of . . .
    an offense necessarily included in the offense charged”). It follows
    from these two principles that requiring such notice in the context
    of revocation proceedings would require more of the government
    than in criminal prosecutions, which is inconsistent with our obli-
    gation to “avoid[] the imposition of rigid requirements that would
    threaten the informal nature of probation revocation proceedings.”
    Black, 
    471 U.S. at 611
    .
    “The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment . . . in-
    cluded the right generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized
    at common law.” Ingraham v. Wright, 
    430 U.S. 651
    , 672–73 (1977)
    (internal quotation marks omitted); see also 3 JOSEPH STORY,
    COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
    § 1783, at 661 (Bos., Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 1833) (explaining that
    “this clause in effect affirms the right of trial according to the pro-
    cess and proceedings of the common law”). Because “[t]he lan-
    guage of the Constitution . . . could not be understood without ref-
    erence to the common law,” “it must be interpreted in the light of
    the common law.” See United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 
    169 U.S. 649
    , 654 (1898). So, when addressing the scope of “due process of
    law,” U.S. CONST. amend. V, we “refer to traditional common-law
    concepts,” “to what has always been the law of the land,” Ingra-
    ham, 
    430 U.S. at
    659–60 (alteration adopted) (internal quotation
    marks omitted), and “to the decisions in England and in the several
    states of the Union, whose laws have the same source,” United
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022      Page: 12 of 17
    12                      Opinion of the Court                   21-10316
    States v. Sanges, 
    144 U.S. 310
    , 311–12 (1892); cf. Uzuegbunam v.
    Preczewski, 
    141 S. Ct. 792
    , 797–99 (2021) (explaining that “[i]n de-
    termining whether nominal damages can redress a past injury, [the
    Court] look[s] to . . . cases at common law . . . both before and after
    ratification of the Constitution”). And we have explained that “a
    process of law must be taken to be due process of law, if it can show
    the sanction of settled usage both in England and in this country.”
    United States v. Approximately $299,873.70, 
    15 F.4th 1332
    , 1337
    (11th Cir. 2021) (alterations adopted) (quoting Burnham v. Supe-
    rior Ct. of Cal., 
    495 U.S. 604
    , 619 (1990) (plurality opinion)); see also
    Ingraham, 
    430 U.S. at 679
     (“[W]here the State has preserved what
    has always been the law of the land, the case for [additional] admin-
    istrative safeguards is significantly less compelling.”(citation and in-
    ternal quotation marks omitted)).
    It was well-settled at common law that a “jury was permit-
    ted to find the defendant guilty of any lesser offense necessarily in-
    cluded in the offense charged.” Beck v. Alabama, 
    447 U.S. 625
    , 633
    (1980). In England, a prisoner indicted of burglary could be acquit-
    ted of the burglary for a defect in the evidence of a “breaking and
    entering” and convicted of stealing instead. See King v. Withal
    (1774) 168 Eng. Rep. 146, 146 (rejecting the argument that the jury
    could not convict a defendant merely of stealing because “there
    was no separate and distinct count in the indictment . . . for stealing
    in the dwelling-house” and holding “that the indictment contained
    every charge that was necessary in an indictment . . . [for] stealing
    in a dwelling-house”). Likewise, in an indictment charging that a
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 13 of 17
    21-10316                Opinion of the Court                        13
    defendant both authored and published a libel—the conjunction
    being a “higher breach of the laws” than mere publication—it was
    “enough to prove publication” alone for a conviction of that lesser
    “breach of the laws.” See Rex v. Hunt (1811) 170 Eng. Rep. 1260,
    1260 (“If an indictment charges that the defendant did and caused
    to be done a particular act, it is enough to prove either.”). And a
    defendant indicted of murder could be acquitted of the murder and
    convicted of manslaughter. See 2 WILLIAM HAWKINS, A TREATISE
    OF THE PLEAS OF THE CROWN ch. XLVII, § 4, at 619–20 (London, C.
    Roworth, Bell Yard, Temple Bar 8th ed. 1824) (“[W]here the jury
    find a man not guilty of an indictment . . . of murder, . . . they may,
    according to the nature of the evidence, find him guilty of man-
    slaughter.” (footnote omitted)); 2 MATTHEW HALE, THE HISTORY
    OF THE PLEAS OF THE CROWN 302 (Phila., Robert H. Small 1st Am.
    ed. 1847) (“So if a man be indicted of murder . . . the jury may find
    him guilty of manslaughter.”). The distinction between greater and
    lesser offenses “r[an] through the whole criminal law; and it [was]
    invariably enough to prove so much of the indictment as [estab-
    lished] that the defendant ha[d] committed a substantive crime
    therein specified.” Hunt, 170 Eng. Rep. at 1260.
    The doctrine of lesser included offenses obtained in Ameri-
    can common law. See James A. Shellenberger & James A.
    Strazzella, The Lesser Included Offense Doctrine and the Constitu-
    tion: The Development of Due Process and Double Jeopardy Rem-
    edies, 79 MARQ. L. REV. 1, 103 (1995) (explaining that there was “a
    continuity of acceptance of the [lesser-included-offense] doctrine
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 14 of 17
    14                      Opinion of the Court                 21-10316
    dating from before the adoption of . . . the original Fifth Amend-
    ment Due Process Clause”). “It [was] a general rule at common
    law, where the accusation in the indictment includes an offence of
    inferiour degree, the jury may discharge the defendant of the
    higher crime, and convict him of the less atrocious.” State v. Coy,
    
    2 Aik. 181
    , 182 (Vt. 1827) (holding that a jury could lawfully acquit
    a defendant of assault with intent to murder and convict him of
    “common assault” instead) (internal quotation marks omitted); see
    also Stewart v. State, 
    5 Ohio 241
    , 241 (1831) (“That a jury may find
    a verdict of guilty for part, and acquit for the residue; that where
    an accusation for a crime of a higher nature includes an offense of
    a lower degree, the jury may acquit him for the graver offense, and
    return him guilty of the least atrocious.”). “This rule originally de-
    veloped as an aid to the prosecution in cases in which the proof
    failed to establish some element of the crime charged.” Beck, 
    447 U.S. at 633
    . And in the United States, prosecutors could secure con-
    victions for misdemeanor offenses that were necessarily included
    in charged felony offenses. E.g., Hunter v. Commonwealth, 
    79 Pa. 503
    , 505 (1875); Coy, 2 Aik. at 183; Stewart, 5 Ohio at 241 (“[T]here
    is no foundation in this country for the distinction . . . between fel-
    onies and misdemeanors; for here, an indictment for the higher of-
    fense rather adds to than subtracts from his privileges.”); Shellen-
    berger & Strazzella, supra, at 107.
    In the United States, notice of the greater offense has long
    sufficed for notice of any lesser included offense. “It is an ancient
    doctrine of both the common law and of our Constitution that a
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316       Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 15 of 17
    21-10316               Opinion of the Court                        15
    defendant cannot be held to answer a charge not contained in the
    indictment brought against him.” Schmuck v. United States, 
    489 U.S. 705
    , 717 (1989). That doctrine “is based at least in part on the
    right of the defendant to notice of the charge brought against him.”
    
    Id. at 718
    . But what is critical for notice in the context of criminal
    prosecutions is that all the elements of the offense of which the de-
    fendant was convicted were in the indictment; “this right to notice
    would be placed in jeopardy” if prosecutors were “able to request
    an instruction on an offense whose elements were not charged in
    the indictment.” 
    Id.
     There is no notice violation “in those cases
    where the indictment contains the elements of both offenses” be-
    cause it “thereby gives notice to the defendant that he may be con-
    victed on either charge.” 
    Id.
     And contemporary practice reflects the
    longstanding tradition of convicting defendants of lesser included
    offenses not expressly charged. 3 CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT ET AL.,
    FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 515 (4th ed. 2021) (“In apply-
    ing the [Schmuck] elements test, if the court concludes that one
    offense is a lesser-included offense of the other, then the defendant
    may be convicted of the lesser-included offense without it being
    charged.”); FED. R. CRIM. P. 31(c) (“A defendant may be found
    guilty of . . . an offense necessarily included in the offense
    charged.”).
    In the light of the long and unbroken history of allowing
    convictions on lesser included offenses not expressly charged, we
    conclude that a district court may find that a defendant committed
    a lesser included offense of a greater offense that was expressly
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316         Date Filed: 02/16/2022       Page: 16 of 17
    16                       Opinion of the Court                    21-10316
    mentioned in the petition for revocation. The only question re-
    maining is whether misdemeanor obstruction—the offense the dis-
    trict court found that Dennis had committed—is a lesser included
    offense of felony obstruction—the offense identified in the revoca-
    tion petition. We conclude that it is.
    Under Georgia law, a defendant is guilty of misdemeanor
    obstruction if he “[1] knowingly and willfully [2] obstruct[ed] . . .
    [3] any law enforcement officer . . . in the lawful discharge of his or
    her official duties.” GA. CODE. ANN. § 16-10-24(a). By contrast, a de-
    fendant is guilty of felony obstruction if he “[1] knowingly and will-
    fully . . . [2] obstruct[ed] . . . [3] any law enforcement officer . . . in
    the lawful discharge of his or her official duties [4] by offering or
    doing violence to the person of such officer or legally authorized
    person.” Id. § 16-10-24(b). Because “it is impossible to commit” fel-
    ony obstruction “without also committing” misdemeanor obstruc-
    tion, see 3 WRIGHT ET AL., supra, § 515, “misdemeanor obstruction
    clearly is a lesser included offense of felony obstruction,” Watson
    v. State, 
    763 S.E.2d 122
    , 125 (Ga. Ct. App. 2014). And Dennis does
    not contest that conclusion.
    It follows that the revocation petition provided “written no-
    tice of the claimed violation[] of” Dennis’s probation. See Gagnon,
    
    411 U.S. at 786
     (internal quotation marks omitted). The petition
    alleged that Dennis violated the mandatory condition that she not
    commit another state crime because she had committed “Willful
    Obstruction of Law Enforcement by Threats or Violence.” That
    allegation refers expressly to “willful obstruction of law
    USCA11 Case: 21-10316        Date Filed: 02/16/2022     Page: 17 of 17
    21-10316                Opinion of the Court                        17
    enforcement,” which is misdemeanor obstruction. See Shellen-
    berger & Strazzella, supra, at 101 (explaining that the doctrine of
    lesser included offenses “is shown most clearly when the indict-
    ment actually referred to the lesser in describing the greater (e.g.,
    assault with intent to murder or kill or ravish refer[s] to assault)”).
    In that event, “both the greater and the lesser are stated in the
    charge and either or both can be found by the [factfinder].” Id. The
    petition further alleged that Dennis had “refused to cooperate and
    would not follow any of the officer’s instructions,” which were the
    facts on which the district court based its finding that Dennis had
    committed misdemeanor obstruction. Because misdemeanor ob-
    struction is a lesser included offense of felony obstruction, Watson,
    763 S.E.2d at 125, the inclusion of felony obstruction in the petition
    “thereby g[ave] notice to the defendant that [s]he may be [found
    guilty] on either charge,” see Schmuck, 
    489 U.S. at 718
    .
    IV. CONCLUSION
    We AFFIRM Dennis’s sentence of supervised release.