Is a defendant's personal allocution and defense counsel allowed to speak at his sentencing hearing?

MultiRegion, United States of America

The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Gutierrez, 555 F.3d 105 (2nd Cir. 2009):

As we have previously observed, defense counsel, like the defendant himself, plays an important role in ensuring that the information on which defendant is sentenced is accurate and reliable, and that a sentencing court's use of that information comports with settled law. See, e.g., United States v. Cole, 496 F.3d 188, 193 (2d Cir.2007) ("Rule 32 in generaland subdivisions (f) and (i) in particularis intended to provide efficient and focused[ ] adversarial resolution of the legal and factual issues to ensure that a defendant is not sentenced on the basis of materially untrue statements or misinformation." (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted) (emphasis added)). Because defendant's personal allocution and defense counsel's argument on the defendant's behalf serve essentially the same purpose at a sentencing hearingensuring that the information before the sentencing court is accurate the same standards should govern the omission of allowing either to speak.

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