Court Opinion

ID: 9807849
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:17:34.930136+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:34.873229
License: Public Domain

AGEE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
[redacted] I write separately, however, to state my disagreement with footnote ten of the majority opinion, which suggests that the Government should not have pursued this appeal at all.
The Government possesses “broad” prosecutorial discretion. Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598, 608, 105 S.Ct. 1524, 84 L.Ed.2d 547 (1985), and it exercises that discretion when choosing when or how to pursue an appeal, United States v. Fernandez, 887 F.2d 465, 470 (4th Cir.1989). Sometimes the Government may press an argument on appeal that, from our position, seems less convincing. But we should expect some aggressiveness, as the Government is obliged to “prosecute the accused with earnestness and vigor.” United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 110, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976). Thus, “[i]t should be a rare occasion when judges criticize, and thereby intrude into, a legitimate exercise of prosecutorial discretion.” United States v. Bonner, 363 F.3d 213, 219 (3d Cir.2004) (Smith, J., concurring). After all, “prosecutorial decisions ... are “particularly ill-suited for judicial review.” United States v. Richardson, 856 F.2d 644, 647 (4th Cir.1988) (internal quotation marks omitted). If we too eagerly and too often comment on the Government’s strategic choices, then the Government could become a less zealous advocate — and our adversarial system of justice would suffer for it.
This case does not present one of those rare occasions when we should disparage a coordinate branch for doing what the Constitution and its statutory mandate charge it to do. The Government here faced a claim of unobjected-to [redacted] error. Certainly, it is “difficult” for the ordinary defendant to establish plain error. Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 135, 129 S.Ct. 1423, 173 L.Ed.2d 266 (2009). And some of our prior decisions suggested that reversal in circumstances like these was especially unlikely, [redacted]
Of course, we have ultimately rebuffed the Government’s position. But the vaca-tur alone should be enough of a rebuke. Thus, I join the majority except as to footnote ten, preferring to leave that portion of the opinion unsaid.