High Court Seems Skeptical of 5th Circ. Sentencing Practice

Law360
8 minute read | December.13.2019

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case that may clarify how specific a defendant's lawyer must be when objecting to a criminal sentence, and when she must make that objection, in order to receive a more favorable standard of review on appeal.

The question before the justices in Holguin-Hernandez v. United States was whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has been requiring criminal defendants to make unnecessary post-sentencing objections in the name of Rule 51 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Originially published in Law360; reprinted with permission.