United States v. Green, No. 17-30227 (9th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseA district court does not need to decide on a defendant's eligibility for an acceptance-of-responsibility reduction in his Guidelines level before listening to the defendant's allocution. The Ninth Circuit vacated defendant's sentence for possession of a firearm as a felon and reversed for resentencing. The panel held that the district court erred in this case by concluding that it could not listen to defendant's allocution before determining whether a reduction of acceptance of responsibility was warranted, and the error was plain, affecting defendant's substantial rights and seriously affecting the fairness of the proceedings.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Vacating a sentence and remanding for resentencing, the panel held that the district court erred by concluding that it could not listen to the defendant’s allocution before determining whether a reduction of acceptance of responsibility was warranted under the Sentencing Guidelines, and that this misapprehension was plain error that affected the defendant’s substantial rights and seriously affected the fairness of the proceedings.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on October 7, 2019.
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