01-687 U.S. v. Cotton

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The omission from a federal indictment of a fact that enhances the statutory maximum sentence does not justify a court of appeals’ vacating the enhanced sentence, even though the defendant did not object in the trial court. Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b)’s plain-error test, where there is an “(1) error, (2) that is plain, and (3) that affects substantial rights,” an appellate court may correct an error not raised at trial, “but only if (4) the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-467 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Government concedes that the indictment’s failure to allege a fact that increased the sentences was plain error. But, even assuming the error affected respondents’ substantial rights, it did not seriously affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. The evidence that the conspiracy involved at least 50 grams of cocaine base was “overwhelming” and “essentially uncontroverted.” It is true that the Fifth Amendment grand jury right serves a vital function in providing for a body of citizens that acts as a check on prosecutorial power, but that is no less true of the Sixth Amendment right to a petit jury, which must find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The petit jury’s important role did not, however, prevent the Johnson Court from applying the longstanding rule “that a constitutional right may be forfeited in criminal as well as civil cases by the failure to make timely assertion of the right.” Yakus v. United States, 321 U.S. 414, 444. The real threat to the “fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings” would be if respondents, despite the overwhelming and uncontroverted evidence that they were involved in a vast drug conspiracy, were to receive a sentence prescribed for those committing less substantial drug offenses because of an error that was never objected to at trial.”

261 F.3d 397, reversed and remanded.

Local effect:

The decision is consistent with current Seventh Circuit law, U.S. v. Bjorkman, 270 F.3d 482 (7th Cir. 2001).

Rehnquist, C. J.