Holguin-hernandez v. United States
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 26, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- February 26, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2019
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
OCTOBER TERM, 2019 169 Syllabus HOLGUIN-HERNANDEZ v. UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fth circuit No. 18–7739. Argued December 10, 2019—Decided February 26, 2020 A criminal defendant who wants to “preserve a claim of error” for appel- late review must frst inform the trial judge “of [1] the action the party wishes the court to take, or [2] the party's objection to the court's action and the grounds for that objection.” Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 51(b). Petitioner Holguin-Hernandez was convicted on drug charges and sen- tenced to 60 months in prison and fve years of supervised release while he was still serving a term of supervised release for an earlier convic- tion. The Government asked the District Court to impose an additional consecutive prison term of 12 to 18 months for violating the conditions of the earlier term. Petitioner countered that 18 U. S. C. § 3553's sen- tencing factors either did not support imposing any additional time or supported a sentence of less than 12 months. The court nonetheless imposed a consecutive 12-month term. Petitioner argued on appeal that this sentence was unreasonably long because it was “ `greater than necessar[y]' to accomplish the goals of sentencing,” Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U. S. 85, 101, but the Fifth Circuit held that he had forfeited that argument by failing to object to the…
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