United States v. Yijun Zhou

I concur in full in the majority’s opinion. I write separately to question the validity of our case law with respect to the standard of review applicable to arguments raised for the first time on appeal by criminal defendants.

A federal court of appeals normally will not correct a legal error made in criminal trial court proceedings unless the defendant first brought the error to the trial court’s attention. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993). But Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b), creating an exception to the normal rule, says that…