Criminal Procedure — right of allocution

Listen to this article

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — right of allocution

The district court did not deny a defendant’s right to allocution by asking questions.

“We acknowledge that the district court interrupted Covington in order to ask him a question. But an interruption by the court does not in itself amount to a denial of a defendant’s right of allocution. This is especially true in this case, where the court’s interruption was an attempt to refocus the defendant’s statements on mitigation rather than to terminate the allocution completely. For example, Covington went into great detail about his various altercations with his father, and at one point he recounted a confusing story in which he asked a blind man not to say his name as his father was walking nearby. Although the court interjected with questions, it permitted Covington to answer them fully and even permitted him to veer away from the original subject matter of those questions. While Covington was free to speak about whatever he wished, the court’s interruption was a reasonable attempt to get him back on track and thus a reasonable limitation on his right of allocution.”

Affirmed.

11-2652 U.S. v. Covington

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Zagel, J., Bauer, J.