United States v. Depue, No. 15-10553 (9th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this Case
A defendant waives his rights to challenge his sentence and precludes plain error review only when there is evidence that he knew of his rights at the time and nonetheless relinquished them. The en banc court affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence, reaffirming the distinction between waiver and forfeiture of sentencing challenges.
The en banc court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it dismissed a juror who complained of health problems during deliberations. Although the en banc court held that defendant's failure to object to the Guidelines calculations at sentencing constituted forfeiture subject to plain error review, there was no plain error. In this case, regardless of whether the district court's loss calculation method was legally erroneous, defendant failed to meet his burden of showing that the alleged error affected his substantial rights.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Affirming a conviction and sentence, the en banc court reaffirmed the distinction between waiver and forfeiture of sentencing challenges: a defendant waives his rights and precludes plain error review only when there is evidence that he knew of his rights at the time and nonetheless relinquished them. Affirming the conviction, the en banc court adopted the three-judge panel’s decision that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it dismissed a juror who complained of health problems during deliberations. The en banc court held that the defendant forfeited— rather than waived—his challenge to the Sentencing Guidelines calculation because nothing in the district court record suggests that the defendant considered objecting to the calculation method or to any of the alleged factual inaccuracies he now raises. The en banc court explained that the fact the defendant knew generally that he could object if he recognized a mistake, or that he recognized and raised other errors, does not mean that he waived the right to challenge the specific alleged errors he raises on appeal. Because the defendant forfeited rather than waived his challenge to the district court’s Guidelines calculation, the en banc court evaluated whether the calculation was plain
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on January 11, 2018.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.