Greer v. United States (19-8709)
argument 19-8709Greer v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 3m
8 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 7 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the central legal issue in Greer v. United States?
We will hear argument first this morning in case nineteen eighty seven oh nine Greer versus United States. Miss Wayardo?
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court. The question at issue concerns the method an appellate court applies in conducting clean air review of a defendant's trial. And in particular, what body of evidence an appellate court may rely on to affirm a defens defendant's conviction at that trial. In this case, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed mister Greer's conviction by relying on information that had never been introduced at his trial. There are three fundamental problems with this approach. First, at prong three of Plain Air Review. The inquiry is whether the errors affected the outcome of the trial, meaning that verdict of guilt. Looking at information that was never before the fact finder at trial is not relevant to that inquiry.
Second, at Prong four plain error review, it is fundamentally unfair to affirm a defendant's conviction based on information never introduced against him at trial. At a trial, a defendant is on notice that anything being introduced may be used by the fact finder to determine his guilt. But outside the record of the trial, information may go untested and not be reliable for determining guilt. That is particularly the case here where because of the uniform circuit precedent before Rahaf, At no proceeding in the district court had the parties addressed Or the judge found the mens rea required by this court in Rahaif. The record was simply not constructed to address this element of the offense. And third, there are practical problems to such an approach.
Once an appellate court relies on information not introduced at trial to affirm a defendant's conviction, that risks embroiling the appellate courts in future litigation over whether that information is admissible and reliable enough to affirm a defendant's conviction. Thank you.
Uh thank you, counsel. Um l let's suppose you have a defendant um uh who is uh convicted under nine twenty two G prior to Rehaif and on appeal she argues um that if she had known she uh uh had to establish or the prosecution had to establish a felon uh that she knew that she was a felon, that she would have introduced uh mental health evidence to show that she was incapable of uh uh that knowledge. Um in that case could the reviewing court look at that evidence of mental illness which was not presented to the jury, not presented on trial, uh on plain air review. Or or does your rule uh bar only the prosecution?
Your Honor, our rule applies it depends on what the nature of the error is. In that instance, the defendant would be the the the claimed error would be the exclusion of evidence. And that so therefore the appellate court could look at that in terms of reviewing the nature of that error. But if if the claim is what it is here, such as an insufficiency of the evidence claim, then that evidence or that information the defendant is offering would not be considered. So our rule on an insufficiency claim is that it's still limited to the what was introduced at the trial.
Well th that that's the the basis of my question. Uh uh I'm not sure why you limit the uh your analysis in that way and the fact that there are many, many situations where we obviously do allow consideration of evidence outside the record in assessing uh uh a claim of trial error, I I don't know why this would be treated differently.
It will depend, Your Honor, on what the the claimed error is. And with an insufficiency claim, the question is, and this goes back to the court's earliest cases such as in Clayot and Weiberg, what was the information or the evidence introduced before the fact finder? Was that evidence su sufficient? And that remains the inquiry even on plain error review, Your Honor.
Thank you, Council. Uh Justice Thomas.
Uh thank you, Mr Chief Justice. Uh counsel, could you would you be kind enough to tell me what language from or text from fifty two B that you're relying on?
Your Honor, with respect to the text in fifty two B, i the it's the denial or the inquiry is the substantial rights inquiry.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central legal issue in Greer v. United States?
0:00–8:22
2
How does the Eleventh Circuit’s use of evidence not presented at trial affect the conviction?
8:22–15:07
3
Why do counsel and the Court argue that plain‑error review should be limited to the trial record?
15:07–22:46
4
What are the arguments for and against allowing appellate courts to consider evidence outside the trial record?
22:46–31:07
5
How does the post‑Raha f decision change the analysis of the “old chief stipulation”?
31:07–40:39
6
What role do the Fourth and Third prongs of the plain‑error test play in this case?
40:39–47:05
7
How do the Justices address constitutional concerns, especially the Sixth Amendment, in this context?
47:05–56:00
8
What practical consequences do the parties claim would result from adopting the proposed rule?
56:00–1:03:56