The Supreme Court decided Holguin-Hernandez v. United States, No. 18-7739, 589 U.S. ___ (Feb. 26, 2020), and ruled unanimously in favor of the defense.

Mr. Holguin-Hernandez violated his term of supervised release and was subject to a violation guidelines range of 12-18 months. At his VOSR sentencing, his attorney argued for no prison time, or at least a term of imprisonment less than 12 months. The district court imposed a sentence of 12 months. The question presented to the Court was whether the defendant’s request for a specific sentence preserved his appellate claim that his 12-month sentence was unreasonable.

The Supreme Court said this claim was sufficiently preserved.

Rejecting the Fifth Circuit’s decision below, the Supreme Court confirmed that so long as “a criminal defendant advocates for a sentence shorter than the one ultimately imposed,” he sufficiently preserves his claim on appeal that a longer sentence is unreasonable. A defendant is not required to formally object to the “reasonableness” of a sentence to preserve this claim.

What does this mean for me?

The Court’s decision is limited to finding that a substantive unreasonableness claim as to the length of a sentence is preserved when a defendant asks for a lower sentence than he ultimately receives. The Court declined to address what is necessary to preserve other sentencing issues—such as a claim that a court’s sentencing procedure was improper or how to preserve a “particular argument” that supports a substantive unreasonableness claim. Notably, Justices Alito and Gorsuch warned that “we do not suggest that a generalized argument in favor of less imprisonment will insulate all arguments regarding the length of a sentence from plain error review.” Holguin-Hernandez, 589 U.S. at __ (Alito, Gorsuch, JJ., concurring).

This case is an important reminder to make sure you are doing all you can to clearly preserve all claims at sentencing. As explained in Holguin-Hernandez, Rule 51(b) provides for two methods to make an objection: (1) by informing the court of the action the party wishes the court to take; or (2) by objecting to the court’s action and stating the grounds for that objection. Satisfying both methods will be your best bet to make the strongest record.

ScotusBlog case page here: https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/holguin-hernandez-v-united-states/