736
Opinion of the Court
notice [forfeited error]." Sykes v. United States, 204 F. 909, 913-914 (CA8 1913). Accord, Crawford v. United States, 212 U. S. 183, 194 (1909); former Supreme Court Rule 27.6 (1939) (cited in Advisory Committee's Notes on Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. Rule 52(b), 18 U. S. C. App., p. 833) (" '[T]he court, at its option, may notice a plain error not assigned or specified' ").
We previously have explained that the discretion conferred by Rule 52(b) should be employed " 'in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result.' " Young, 470 U. S., at 15 (quoting Frady, supra, at 163, n. 14). In our collateral-review jurisprudence, the term "miscarriage of justice" means that the defendant is actually innocent. See, e. g., Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U. S. 333, 339- 340 (1992). The court of appeals should no doubt correct a plain forfeited error that causes the conviction or sentencing of an actually innocent defendant, see, e. g., Wiborg v. United States, 163 U. S. 632 (1896), but we have never held that a Rule 52(b) remedy is only warranted in cases of actual innocence.
Rather, the standard that should guide the exercise of remedial discretion under Rule 52(b) was articulated in United States v. Atkinson, 297 U. S. 157 (1936). The court of appeals should correct a plain forfeited error affecting substantial rights if the error "seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings." Id., at 160. As we explained in Young, the "standard laid down in United States v. Atkinson [was] codified in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b)," 470 U. S., at 7, and we repeatedly have quoted the Atkinson language in describing plain-error review, see id., at 15; Frady, supra, at 163, n. 13; Silber v. United States, 370 U. S. 717, 718 (1962) (per curiam); Johnson v. United States, 318 U. S. 189, 200 (1943); United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U. S. 150, 239 (1940); see also Connor v. Finch, 431 U. S. 407, 421, n. 19 (1977) (civil appeal). An error may "seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings" independent of the
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