Carlisle v. United States

As long as a federal court retains jurisdiction over a criminal case, it has the authority to ensure that no conviction is entered unless the prosecutor has proved the defendant’s guilt. The exercise of the court’s inherent power to set *437aside a jury verdict unsupported by evidence is not contingent on the filing of a timely motion by the defendant. The question in this case, therefore, is not whether Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure authorizes the court to grant an untimely motion for judgment of acquittal; I agree with the Court that it does not. Rather, the question is…