State v. Jones

**310Defendant Donnell Jones asserts that an infringement of his right to allocute and present mitigating information occurred when, after he addressed the sentencing court, he did not have an **311opportunity to respond to the State's final comments before the court imposed its sentence. We granted certification to consider defendant's arguments about his sentencing, and we now conclude that they are unavailing.

In our judicial system, the trial court controls the flow of proceedings in the courtroom. As a reviewing court, we apply the abuse of discretion standard when examining the trial…