United States v. Bustamante-Conchas

LUCERO, Circuit Judge,

joined by KELLY, BRISCOE, MATHESON, BACHARACH, McHUGH, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges.

We granted en banc review in this case because it involves a clear failure of the trial court to ask the defendant if he had anything to say on his behalf before imposing sentence — a failure to personally address the defendant and offer an opportunity to allocute. Because our jurisprudence has been somewhat contradictory, we also chose to grant en banc rehearing in order to refine the manner in which we conduct plain-error review following such a denial. For the reasons we state hereafter,…