Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Kentucky at Bowling Green.
No. 1:20-cr-00022-1—Gregory N. Stivers, District Judge.
Decided and Filed: May 23, 2022
Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; COLE and DONALD, Circuit Judges.
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OPINION
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BERNICE BOUIE DONALD, Circuit Judge. Mammoth Cave National Park in
Kentucky is home to the world’s longest known cave system, spanning more than 400 miles.1
It is also where Jason Zabel committed abusive sexual contact against a female National Park
Service employee—a crime for which he pled guilty and received a sentence of 18 months’
imprisonment, followed by a life term of supervised release. On appeal, Zabel argues that the
district court erred in denying his pre-guilty-plea motion to suppress incriminating statements he
made to park rangers and that his sentence—both the term of incarceration and lifetime
supervision—was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. He also contends that his
statutory maximum term of supervised release violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition
against cruel and unusual punishment. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court’s
judgment and sentence. |