Greer v. United States
United States Supreme Court
141 S. Ct. 2090, 210 L. Ed. 2d 121 (2021)
- Written by Kate Douglas, JD
Facts
In Rehaif v. United States, the United States Supreme Court held that the government must prove that a defendant knew he was a felon to convict on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Gregory Greer and Michael Gary (defendants) were separately convicted of being felons in possession before Rehaif. At trial, Greer stipulated that he was a felon. The district court did not instruct the jury that it needed to find that Greer knew he was a felon, nor did Greer ask for that instruction. Gary pleaded guilty and admitted his felony status. At the plea hearing, the district court did not inform Gary that a jury would have to find that Gary knew he was a felon to convict. Greer and Gary appealed based on Rehaif. Greer’s conviction was affirmed. Gary’s conviction was reversed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in both cases. Greer argued that courts conducting plain-error review of instructional errors must limit their review to the trial record. Gary argued that his appeal was exempt from plain-error review because objecting before the district court would have been futile and because that court’s error was structural.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kavanaugh, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
