Opinion ID: 695622
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Riley

Text: 30 Like Jackson, Riley was not a leader of this conspiracy. Thus, Riley makes the same arguments as Jackson: he could not have foreseen the conspiracy's output, and he was only personally involved in a minimal amount of crack cocaine. Unfortunately, Riley has waived this argument. 31 Unlike Hansley and Jackson, Riley did not file an objection to the PSR's calculation of his base offense level. Then, at the sentencing hearing, the district court offered Riley multiple chances to articulate this objection. He did not do so. Nonetheless, Riley now argues that he has preserved this claim, pointing to the following comment which his counsel made at the sentencing hearing: Your Honor, I'd like to make a brief statement on behalf of my client.... [A]ny sentence given Bobby Riley should be based solely on any involvement of which he was involved and convicted and not based on the far-reaching and very detrimental negative effects of any drug trafficking conspiracy. 32 We do not find that the above comment preserved this issue for appeal. Where the district court has offered the opportunity to object and a party is silent or fails to state the grounds for objection, objections to the sentence will be waived for purposes of appeal. United States v. Jones, 899 F.2d 1097, 1103 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 906, 111 S.Ct. 275, 112 L.Ed.2d 230 (1990), overruled on other grounds, United States v. Morrill, 984 F.2d 1136 (11th Cir.1993) (en banc ). When the district court asked for objections, Riley failed to present any. The above comment, which counsel made in the middle of a general statement on Riley's behalf, does not constitute an objection. Thus, Riley waived this contention. 33 This court, however, will consider sentence objections raised for the first time on appeal under the plain error doctrine to avoid 'manifest injustice.'  United States v. Newsome, 998 F.2d 1571, 1579 (11th Cir.1993) (quoting United States v. Neely, 979 F.2d 1522, 1523 (11th Cir.1992)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 734, 126 L.Ed.2d 698 (1994). The district court erred when it failed to make individualized findings as to Riley's involvement in the conspiracy. The issue, however, is whether this mistake constitutes plain error. Plain error exists where the mistake is so obvious that the failure to notice it would seriously affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Newsome, 998 F.2d at 1581 (quoting United States v. Chaney, 662 F.2d 1148, 1152 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981)). We cannot say that the district court's failure to make individualized findings reaches this high standard of egregious error. Thus, we refuse to entertain Riley's contention.