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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 20-10635
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 1:15-cr-20777-JEM-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
JUNIOR JEAN BAPTISTE,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
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(February 4, 2021)
Before JORDAN, NEWSOM, and GRANT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
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Junior Jean Baptiste appeals the district court’s within-guideline 212-month
total sentence, which it imposed on remand, having failed initially to give Baptiste
an opportunity to address the court directly. Baptiste now argues that the court
failed to give adequate explanation for the chosen sentence under 18 U.S.C.
§ 3553(c), which requires a district court to “state in open court the reasons for its
imposition of the particular sentence.” The facts are familiar to the parties, and we
do not repeat them except as necessary to resolve the issue before us.
A sentence is procedurally unreasonable if a district court commits an error
such as failing to consider the § 3553(a) factors or inadequately explaining the
chosen sentence. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). When a
defendant’s sentence has been set aside and his case remanded for resentencing, a
district court “may consider evidence of [his] rehabilitation since his prior
sentencing and . . . such evidence may, in appropriate cases, support a downward
variance.” Pepper v. United States, 562 U.S. 476, 490 (2011).
To comply with § 3553(c)(1), the court should tailor its comments to show
that the sentence imposed is appropriate, given the factors set forth in § 3553(a).
United States v. Veteto, 920 F.2d 823, 826 (11th Cir. 1991). “The length and
amount of detail describing the district court’s reasoning depends on the
circumstances.” United States v. Ghertler, 605 F.3d 1256, 1262 (11th Cir. 2010).
A sentencing court is not required to incant the specific language used in the
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guidelines or articulate its consideration of each individual § 3553(a) factor, so
long as the record reflects the court’s consideration of many of those factors. Id.
And the court need only set forth enough to satisfy us that it considered the parties’
arguments and had a reasoned basis for its decision. United States v. Carpenter,
803 F.3d 1224, 1232 (11th Cir. 2015). We review de novo whether a district court
satisfied § 3553(c)(1). United States v. Bonilla, 463 F.3d 1176, 1181 (11th Cir.
2006).
Here, the district court did not err under § 3553(c)(1) because, in context, the
court sufficiently explained why it imposed a total sentence within the advisory
guideline range. As a general matter, the court noted that it had considered the
statements of all the parties, Baptiste’s post-remand sentencing memorandum, and
the presentence report that contained the facts pertinent to the § 3553(a) factors.
Moreover, in both the first and second sentencing hearings, the district court
emphasized the need for deterrence in south Florida of the type of fraud that
Baptiste committed. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(B).
Baptiste contends that though the district court’s reasoning may have
satisfied § 3553(c) in its first sentencing hearing, it couldn’t rely on the same
deterrence rationale four years later—at least not without new factual findings
showing that the need for deterrence persisted. And in any event, Baptiste says,
the district court failed to consider evidence of Baptiste’s genuine remorse, his
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rehabilitation, his family’s struggles, and the disparate treatment of his uncharged
co-conspirator Andy Louissaint. Though the district court might have done more
to explain its sentence in light of Baptiste’s new arguments, Baptiste’s § 3553(c)
challenge nonetheless fails. For better or worse, our precedents do not demand the
level of detailed explanation that Baptiste seeks from the district court. See, e.g.,
Bonilla, 463 F.3d at 1181 (upholding district court’s sentence under § 3553(c)
where the district court had stated that the sentence “accords with the array of
factors specified in 18 U.S.C. § 3553 and adequately reflects the seriousness of the
offense, . . . the sentence being neither greater nor lesser than necessary to achieve
the statutory purposes of sentencing”); United States v. Irey, 612 F.3d 1160, 1195
(11th Cir. 2010) (en banc) (“It is sufficient that the district court considers the
defendant’s arguments at sentencing and states that it has taken the § 3553(a)
factors into account.”) (quotation marks omitted); United States v. George, 793 F.
App’x 885, 891 (11th Cir. 2019) (holding that the district court satisfied § 3553(c)
where it “expressly articulated that it had considered the § 3553(a) factors, the
[presentencing report] containing the advisory guidelines range, and the parties’
arguments”).
It is true that the Supreme Court has said that “[w]here the defendant or
prosecutor presents nonfrivolous reasons for imposing a different sentence . . . the
judge will normally go further and explain why he has rejected those arguments.”
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Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 357 (2007). But Rita did not create a hard-
and-fast requirement that courts address potentially meritorious arguments point-
by-point. In Rita, the Court affirmed the district court’s explanation for the
sentence it imposed, though it had done no more than the district court here: It did
not expressly rebut defense arguments for a downward variance, but instead stated
that the advisory guidelines were not “an inappropriate guideline range” for that
offense and that it was “appropriate to enter” a low-end guidelines sentence. Id. at
345.
Here, the record shows that the sentencing judge was made fully aware of
Baptiste’s circumstances. It attached significant weight to deterrence over the
other § 3553(a) factors in resentencing Baptiste. That decision was committed to
its sound discretion. See United States v. Cabeza-Montano, 949 F.3d 567, 611
(11th Cir. 2020). While the district court could have better explained its reasons
for its sentence on remand, the district court did not err under § 3553(c).
AFFIRMED.
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