Cite as: 507 U. S. 725 (1993)
Kennedy, J., concurring
prejudice for purposes of ineffective-assistance claim, "a court should presume . . . that the judge or jury acted according to law"). Nor do we think that the mere presence of alternate jurors entailed a sufficient risk of "chill" to justify a presumption of prejudice on that score.
In sum, respondents have not met their burden of showing prejudice under Rule 52(b). Whether the Government could have met its burden of showing the absence of prejudice, under Rule 52(a), if respondents had not forfeited their claim of error, is not at issue here. This is a plain-error case, and it is respondents who must persuade the appellate court that the deviation from Rule 24(c) was prejudicial.
Because the conceded error in this case did not "affec[t] substantial rights," the Court of Appeals had no authority to correct it. We need not consider whether the error, if prejudicial, would have warranted correction under the Atkinson standard as "seriously affect[ing] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings." The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.
Justice Kennedy, concurring.
I join the Court's opinion and add this brief statement to express my own understanding of the Court's holding.
When a court notices an error on its own initiative under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b), see Silber v. United States, 370 U. S. 717, 718 (1962) (per curiam), it may be awkward to say that the case is decided by burden of proof concepts, for by definition none of the parties have addressed the issue. But the Court's opinion is phrased with care to indicate that burden of proof concepts are the normal or usual mode of analysis of error under Rule 52, see ante, at 734-735, and so other rules may apply where the aggrieved party has not raised the issue. In most cases, how-
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