## Facts

- Gregory Greer and Michael Gary were each convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) for possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a felony.
- Their convictions became the subject of appellate review after a later decision held that, for § 922(g) offenses, the government must prove the defendant knew of his prohibited status at the time of possession.
- Greer was convicted after a jury trial; he stipulated that he had a prior felony conviction, and the jury was not instructed that the government had to prove he knew he was a felon.
- Gary pleaded guilty; during the plea colloquy the court did not advise that the government would have to prove he knew he was a felon, creating an unpreserved Rule 11 error.
- On appeal, Greer sought relief for the unpreserved instructional omission; Gary sought vacatur of his guilty plea based on the unpreserved plea-colloquy omission.
- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Greer’s conviction under plain-error review, relying on the record, including prior convictions, to find no effect on substantial rights.
- The Fourth Circuit vacated Gary’s guilty plea, treating the plea-colloquy omission as structural error requiring automatic reversal.
- The Supreme Court consolidated the cases and reviewed both judgments.

## Issues

1. On plain-error review of an unpreserved omission of the knowledge-of-status element in a § 922(g)(1) jury instruction, what must a defendant show to establish that the error affected substantial rights?
2. Whether a district court’s unpreserved failure, during a § 922(g) guilty plea, to advise the defendant of the knowledge-of-status element is structural error requiring automatic vacatur, or instead is reviewed under the ordinary plain-error framework.

## Decision

- The Court held that unpreserved knowledge-of-status omissions in § 922(g)(1) cases are not structural errors and are reviewed under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b) plain-error standards.
- A defendant is not entitled to plain-error relief for a Rehaif-type omission unless the defendant makes a sufficient argument or representation on appeal that he would have presented evidence that he did not know he was a felon.
- Appellate courts may consider the entire record (not only the trial evidence) when evaluating whether the error affected substantial rights.
- As to Greer, the Court affirmed because he did not show a reasonable probability of a different verdict given his felony history and failure to claim lack of knowledge.
- As to Gary, the Court reversed because the plea-colloquy omission was not structural, and he did not show a reasonable probability he would have rejected the plea given his felony history.

## Legal Principles

- Plain-error relief under Rule 52(b) requires: (1) error, (2) that is plain, (3) that affects substantial rights (typically a reasonable probability of a different outcome), and (4) that seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.
- In § 922(g)(1) cases with unpreserved Rehaif-type omissions, the “substantial rights” inquiry generally requires some plausible, defendant-specific basis—grounded in the record or in appellate representations—to think the defendant did not know of felony status at the time of possession.
- A Rule 11 omission during a guilty plea concerning the knowledge-of-status element is not structural; to obtain relief on plain-error review, the defendant must show a reasonable probability that, but for the error, he would not have pleaded guilty.
- In assessing prejudice under plain-error review, courts may rely on record evidence of prior felony convictions as strong evidence that the defendant knew of felony status.

## Conclusion

The Court limited relief for unpreserved Rehaif-type omissions in § 922(g)(1) prosecutions by requiring defendants on plain-error review to show a reasonable probability of a different outcome, typically through a concrete claim that they lacked knowledge of felony status, and by rejecting structural-error treatment for similar omissions in guilty pleas.


Greer v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 2090 (2021)