United States v. Steven Yamashiro

I agree with the majority that we should affirm the district court’s decision to deny Steven Yamashiro’s' motion to withdraw his guilty plea. But I disagree that the district court committed “plain error” when it permitted one victim to allocute without Yamashiro’s preferred counsel present.

The standard of review matters. We must apply plain-error review when, as here, there was no objection lodged in the district court to the claimed error. See Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 135, 129 S.Ct. 1423, 173 L.Ed.2d 266 (2009). The Supreme Court has explained the plain-error standard is a…