View source for Henderson v. United States (2013)

{{other uses|Henderson v. United States (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Primary sources|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox SCOTUS case
| Litigants = Henderson v. United States
| ArgueDate = November 28
| ArgueYear = 2012
| DecideDate = February 20
| DecideYear = 2013
| FullName = Armarcion D. Henderson v. United States
| USVol = 568
| USPage = 266
| ParallelCitations = 133 S. Ct. 1121; 185 [[L. Ed. 2d]] 85; 2013 [[U.S. LEXIS]] 1611; 81 U.S.L.W. 4089
| Docket = 11-9307
| Prior = ''United States v. Henderson'', 646 [[F.3d]] [https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20110708085 223] ([[5th Cir.]] 2011); rehearing ''[[en banc]]'' denied, 665 [[F.3d]] [https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20111215144 160] (5th Cir. 2011); [[Certiorari|cert]]. granted, {{ussc|567|934|2012|el=no}}.
| Subsequent =
| Holding = The Supreme Court held that an error is deemed to be a "plain error" based on the law at the time of the appellate review of the case, not at the time of the trial. It is unreasonable to expect either the defendant or the trial court to predict the outcome of unsettled issues of law, therefore it is the role of the appellate court to review what is considered "plain error" at the time of the appellate review.
| Majority = Breyer
| JoinMajority = Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan
| Concurrence =
| JoinConcurrence =
| Concurrence2 =
| JoinConcurrence2 =
| Concurrence/Dissent =
| JoinConcurrence/Dissent =
| Dissent = Scalia
| JoinDissent = Thomas, Alito
| Dissent2 =
| JoinDissent2 =
| LawsApplied =
}}
'''''Henderson v. United States''''', 568 U.S. 266 (2013), was a [[United States Supreme Court]] case in which the Court held regardless of whether a legal question was settled or unsettled at the time of trial, an [[Fundamental error|error]] is "plain" within the meaning of Rule 52(b) of [[Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure|Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure]] so long as the error was plain at the time of [[Appeal|appellate review]].<ref name="ruling">{{ussc|name=<nowiki>Henderson v. United States</nowiki>|volume=568|page=266|pin=|year=2013}}.</ref>
== Background ==
Armarcion D. Henderson pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while being a felon; a federal violation. The sentencing guideline range was 33–41 months, but the judge sentenced Henderson to 60 months to ensure that he had the opportunity to enroll in the [[Bureau of Prisons]] drug program. Henderson's counsel did not object to the sentence, but, on appeal, Henderson claimed that the District Court plainly erred in increasing his sentence solely for rehabilitative purposes. Eight days after sentencing, Henderson filed a motion to correct the sentence. The district court denied the motion.<ref name="ruling" />
[[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit|The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] affirmed, holding that Henderson did not preserve the error for correction under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, so the court reviewed the decision for "plain error".<ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Henderson |vol=646 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=223 |pinpoint= |court=5th Cir. |date=2011 |url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20110708085 |accessdate=2018-12-17 |quote=}}</ref> Henderson did not show plain error because the error was not clear under current law at the time of trial. The court of appeals denied a petition for rehearing.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Henderson |vol=665 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=160 |pinpoint= |court=5th Cir. |date=2011 |url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20111215144 |accessdate=2018-12-17 |quote=}}</ref>
While the appeal was pending, this Court decided in ''[[Tapia v. United States]]'' that it is an error for a court to "impose or lengthen a prison sentence to enable an offender to complete a treatment program or otherwise to promote rehabilitation."<ref>{{ussc|name=Tapia v. United States|volume=564|page=319|pin=|year=2011}}.</ref> While this meant that the District Court's sentence was erroneous, the Fifth Circuit determined that Rule 52(b) did not give it authority to correct the error. In doing so, it concluded that an error is "plain" under the rule only if it was clear under current law at the time of trial, but that, in this case, Circuit law was unsettled until ''Tapia'' was decided.<ref name="ruling" />
== Opinion of the Court ==
Justice [[Stephen Breyer|Breyer]] delivered the majority opinion of the Court in a 6–3 decision. A federal court of appeals normally will not correct a legal error made in criminal trial court proceedings unless the defendant first brought the error to the trial court's attention.<ref>''See'' {{ussc|name=United States v. Olano|volume=507|page=725|pin=731|year=1993}}.</ref> But Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b), creating an exception to the normal rule, says that "[a] plain error that affects substantial rights may be considered even though it was not brought to the [trial] court’s attention." The Rule does not say explicitly, however, as of just what time the error must be "plain". Must the lower court ruling be plainly erroneous as of the time the lower court made the error? Or can an error still count as "plain" if the erroneous nature of that ruling is not "plain" until the time of appellate review? The case before us concerns a District Court's decision on a substantive legal question that was unsettled at the time the trial court acted, thus foreclosing the possibility that any error could have been "plain" then. Before the case was final and at the time of direct appellate review, however, the question had become settled in the defendant's favor, making the trial court's error "plain"—but not until that later time. In our view, as long as the error was plain as of that later time—the time of appellate review— the error is "plain" within the meaning of the Rule. And the Court of Appeals "may...conside[r]" the error even though it was "not brought to the [trial] court's attention".<ref name="ruling" />
Justice [[Antonin Scalia|Scalia]] wrote a dissenting opinion in which he argued that an issue of law that is unsettled at the time of the trial cannot be considered "plain error" for the purposes of appellate review. An error can only be plain if it should have been obvious to the court and the prosecution at the time of the trial. Justices [[Clarence Thomas|Thomas]] and [[Samuel Alito|Alito]] joined in the dissent.<ref name="ruling" />
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{caselaw source
| case = ''Henderson v. United States'', {{ussc|568|266|2013|el=no}}
| courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/820903/henderson-v-united-states/
| googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16192051395864873495
| justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/568/266/
| oyez =https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/11-9307
}}
[[Category:United States Supreme Court cases]]
[[Category:United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court]]
[[Category:2013 in United States case law]]