United States v. Valdez-Aguirre

One form of allocution involves a trial court’s announcement of a definitive sentence before giving the defendant an opportunity to make his statement: this sequence creates a violation unless the court communicates its willingness to reconsider the sentence in light of what the defendant says. In the second form, the trial court announces a purportedly tentative sentence, but makes further statements suggesting that the court might have already made a decision. This was what took place here when Jesus Octavio Valdez-Aguirre was to be sentenced for drug conspiracy. Defendant did not object to this, and appealed to the Tenth Circuit. After review of the trial court record, the Tenth Circuit found no plain error in the judgment and affirmed. View "United States v. Valdez-Aguirre" on Justia Law