Hunter v. United States · ¶98

The right to appeal a sentence is a mere statutory right of modern origin. For much of American history, federal criminal defendants had no right to appeal at all. Trial- court judges have always been oath-bound to sentence defendants according to the law. But, for more than a century after the founding, when they made mistakes—even mistakes “apparent on the record”—federal defendants could not go to an appeals court “to revise the sentences of inferior courts in criminal cases.” Ex parte Watkins, 7 Pet. 568, 574 (1833); see United States v. Sanges, 144 U. S. 310, 319 (1892) (“For a long time after the adoption of the Constitution, Congress made no provision for bringing any criminal case . . . by writ of error”). Then, as now, the Constitution provided no right to appeal. See McKane v. Durston, 153 U. S. 684, 687 (1894); Jones v. Barnes, 463 U. S. 745, 751 (1983). Even defendants…

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