Opinion ID: 70556
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preservation of the Objection

Text: 8 The general rule that an appellate court will not hear arguments advanced for the first time on appeal applies to sentencing proceedings. United States v. Prichett, 898 F.2d 130, 131 (11th Cir.1990). In an effort to ensure that objections to sentencing are made and the grounds for those objections clearly stated at the sentencing hearing, in Jones we instructed district courts to elicit objections and clearly articulated grounds for those objections following the imposition of a sentence. 899 F.2d at 1102. If the district court complies with our instruction in Jones and a party is silent or fails to state the grounds for objections, the objections are waived. Id. (emphasis added). An objection that has been waived will only be entertained on appeal under the plain error doctrine to avoid manifest injustice. United States v. Neely, 979 F.2d 1522, 1523 (11th Cir.1992). 9 The district court complied with Jones by asking for objections after imposition of the sentence. The appellant responded: [W]e would reserve an objection as to the departure. (R. 2 at 102.) This statement, taken alone, is not sufficient to preserve the issue for appeal because Jones requires a clear explanation of the basis for the objection. 10 Maurice contends that the argument in support of his objection was stated prior to the imposition of sentence. Jones gave several reasons for requiring counsel to state the grounds for objections to sentencing: Clear articulation will aid the district court in correcting any error, tell the appellate court precisely which objections have been preserved and which have been waived, and enable the appellate court to apply the proper standard of review to those preserved. Jones, 899 F.2d at 1102-03. These rationales are served so long as the objection to be preserved and the grounds for the objection are clear to the sentencing court at the conclusion of the hearing. Jones does not necessarily require a party to repeat objections made during the course of sentencing proceedings following the imposition of sentence. 4 Similarly, a party is not required to reargue a general objection made after sentencing if the argument in support of that objection has previously been presented to the sentencing court and the reasons for the objection remain clear after the sentence is pronounced. Therefore, if an argument for appellant's objection was made prior to imposition of the sentence, we will hear the objection on those grounds. 11 Appellant claims that the grounds for his objection were stated after the court's decision to depart under Sec. 4A1.3: 12 Mr. Korchin [counsel for the appellant]: Your Honor, at the appropriate time may I be heard on something? 13 The Court: Yes, sir, you may. 14 Mr. Korchin: Judge, I am not absolutely certain about the formula used in departing due to the inadequacy of the criminal history. I know that under a previous guideline manual the procedure was, as outlined here, to move horizontally across the criminal history category, but, I may be incorrect, but I believe the new procedure under this guideline manual is to move vertically down. 15 (R. 2 at 98.) On this appeal Maurice makes three arguments in support of his objection; only one of these arguments can be deciphered from the above passage. We hold that appellant preserved an objection to the upward departure only as to whether the departure should be calculated by moving across or down the sentencing table. Appellant did not ask the district court to consider the nature of his prior convictions, nor did he challenge the reasonableness of the departure by requesting that the court consider intervening criminal history categories or offense levels. The purposes of the rule in Jones are to give the district court an opportunity to correct errors and to produce a record that will guide appellate review. Jones, 899 F.2d at 1102. Neither of these purposes is served with respect to a particular argument if it is not made first to the district court. Appellant waived these arguments by not presenting them at the sentencing hearing and we will only consider them under a plain error standard.