Opinion ID: 718757
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(c)(3)(C)

Text: 9 Before imposing a sentence, a district court must address the defendant personally and determine whether the defendant wishes to make a statement and to present any information in mitigation of the sentence. Fed. R.Crim. P. 32(c)(3)(C). Resentencing is generally required if a court does not comply with the requirements of Rule 32. United States v. Axelrod, 48 F.3d 72, 72-73 (2d Cir.1995) (per curiam). Although the district judge in the instant case announced a sentence before giving the defendant an opportunity to speak, the judge immediately recognized the lapse and offered the defendant the right of allocution. After the defendant spoke, the judge gave his statements full consideration and responded by giving reasons for his decision to adhere to the previously announced sentence. By affording the defendant an opportunity to address the court and reconsidering the sentence just announced, the district judge cured his earlier mistake and complied fully with the requirements of Rule 32. In this instance, it is fair to say that the sentence was not imposed until after the defendant had spoken. See United States v. Laverne, 963 F.2d 235, 237-38 (9th Cir.1992) (finding no violation of Rule 32 where court gave defendant an opportunity to make a statement during the sentencing hearing, before the court made its final judgment but after it had made a preliminary determination regarding defendant's sentence, and gave full consideration to defendant's statement); see also United States v. Barnes, 948 F.2d 325, 331 n. 5 (7th Cir.1991) ([A] trial judge, realizing after sentencing that the right of allocution has been neglected, may rectify the situation by, in effect, setting aside the sentence, reopening the proceeding, and inviting the defendant to speak.... [T]he trial court must genuinely reconsider the sentence in light of the elicited statement.) (citations omitted). 10 To decide in these circumstances that a judgment ought to be vacated and the case be remanded for resentencing would be tantamount to ruling that a district judge cannot correct an inadvertent and harmless mistake made in the course of a sentencing hearing. There is no reason to adopt so inflexible a rule. It would be especially inappropriate to do so at a time when district judges are already laboring under a sentencing regime that, by requiring intricate calculations and findings, necessarily complicates proceedings and increases the likelihood of technical mistakes. Sentencing is rigid and mechanistic enough as it is without the creation of rules that treat district judges as automatons. Where, as here, the technical violation of an applicable rule was promptly corrected and caused no harm, it cannot be said that there was a denial of justice.