{"id":1816,"date":"2017-03-05T16:38:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T16:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2019-11-12T11:50:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T16:50:23","slug":"allocution-error-constitutes-plain-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/sentencing\/allocution-error-constitutes-plain-error","title":{"rendered":"Allocution Error Normally Constitutes Plain Error, Tenth Circuit Holds"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Miguel Bustamante-Conchas was not afforded an opportunity to allocute showing plain error before being sentenced. Allocution is the right of a criminal defendant to tell the judge anything he or she wishes, with the hope the judge might impose a lesser sentence. The right is currently embodied in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32( i)(4)(A)(ii), which requires federal district courts to \u201caddress the defendant personally in order to permit the defendant to speak or present any information to mitigate the sentence.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, sitting en banc<\/em>, held that Bustamante-Conchas had been improperly denied the right of allocution. However, because Bustamante-Conchas did not object to the error at the time of sentencing<\/a>, the court had to decide whether Bustamate-Conchas could show \u201cplain error.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Plain error is shown when there is an<\/p>\r\n

(1) error,<\/p>\r\n

(2) that is plain, which<\/p>\r\n

(3) affects substantial rights, and which<\/p>\r\n

(4) seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings,\u201d the court wrote.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The court found the first two prongs easily satisfied. According to the court, \u201ca complete denial of allocution thus satisfies the first and second prongs of plain-error review.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Concerning the third prong of the plain error test, the Tenth Circuit held that defendants need only show that \u201cthere is a reasonable probability that, but for the error claimed, the result of the proceeding would have been different.\u201d A reasonable probability, the court explained, should not be confused with, \u201ca requirement that a defendant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that but for error things would have been different.\u201d Rather, the court indicated that \u201ca reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

In this regard, the court held that \u201cwithout some exceptionally good reason to doubt that allocution would have mattered, the complete denial of a defendant’s right to allocute raises a reasonable probability of a lesser sentence.\u201d According to the court, \u201cjust as the Guidelines are ordinarily expected to have some impact on a sentence, there is at least a reasonable probability that allocution matters in the usual case.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Even more importantly, the court held the defendants \u201cneed not identify the particular statements they wished to make\u201d to show prejudice.<\/p>\r\n

On the other hand, the court explained, defendants who were sentenced to the statutory mandatory minimum or pursuant to a binding Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement would not be able to show prejudice.<\/p>\r\n

Finally, the court held that \u201cabsent some unusual circumstance … a complete denial of allocution at a defendant’s sentencing hearing will satisfy the fourth prong of the plain-error test.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

According to the court, the denial of allocution \u201cundermines the legitimacy of the sentencing process.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The court also overruled its prior cases which held that a \u201cdefendant must proffer an allocution statement to obtain relief.\u201d The court did so because \u201caccepting a proffered allocution statement would violate the fundamental tenet that appellate courts will not consider material outside the record before the district court.\u201d\u00a0Also, \u201cappellate courts are in a poor position to assess an allocution statement.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

In refusing to require a proffer of what the defendant\u2019s allocution would have been to demonstrate prejudice, the Tenth Circuit created a split with the Fifth Circuit which specifically requires such a statement as a precondition to being afforded relief. United States v. Palacios<\/em>, 844 F.3d 527, 532-33 (5th Cir. 2016) (collecting cases).<\/p>\r\n

Bustamante-Conchas\u2019s sentence was accordingly reversed, and the case was remanded for resentencing. See United States v. Bustamante-Conchas<\/em><\/a>, No. 15-2025 (10th Cir. 2017).<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miguel Bustamante-Conchas was not afforded an opportunity to allocute showing plain error before being sentenced. Allocution is the right of a criminal defendant to tell the judge anything he or she wishes, with the hope the judge might impose a lesser sentence. The right is currently embodied in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32( i)(4)(A)(ii),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[314],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAllocution Error | Plain Error | Criminal Defendant | Sentencing.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Failure to afford allocution before sentencing generally constitutes plain error, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Bustamante-Conchas sentencing case\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/sentencing\/allocution-error-constitutes-plain-error\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Allocution Error | Plain Error | Criminal 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