Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Ink Blots, Allocution, and Error
The Seventh’s Circuit opinion last week in United States v. Noel (No. 07-2468) reveals a substantial division over how to handle violations of a defendant’s right to address the court at sentencing. As now codified in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32, the Supreme Court has held that defendants must be personally invited to address the court before being sentenced; it is not enough for defense counsel to be given an opportunity to speak. I have long thought this right of allocution to be a Rorschach test of sorts, revealing fundamental disagreements in the way that criminal procedure rights are conceptualized.