454
Stevens, J., dissenting
tals, but to leave unaddressed the court's authority to act on its own initiative.12 Such a construction comports with the sound historical and commonsense reasons for concluding that Congress would not likely have intended to require a district court to enter a judgment of conviction against a defendant whom it knows to be innocent.13
III
A brief final word about the practical significance of today's holding. There is no real danger that district judges will be burdened by a flood of untimely motions. On the other hand, the possibility that an Act of God may preclude the timely filing of a meritorious motion cannot be denied. Because evidence of guilt is "absolutely vital to defendants," Wiborg, 163 U. S., at 658, that possibility, no matter how remote, is sufficient to justify a district court's inherent authority to avert the conviction of a legally innocent defendant despite the absence of a timely motion. Because there is no
12 For this reason, the Government's reliance on Rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is misplaced. Although Rule 45 generally permits a district court to hear an untimely motion if the defendant can demonstrate that excusable neglect caused the late filing, it specifically prohibits a district court from extending the time for "tak[ing] any action" under Rule 29. As I have explained, Rule 29(c) only addresses the rules that govern a defendant's postverdict acquittal motion; it does not address the district court's sua sponte postverdict acquittal power. Thus, while Rule 45 serves to make clear that district courts may not entertain defense motions for acquittal filed more than seven days after the jury's discharge, it speaks not at all to the court's inherent power to decline to enter a judgment of conviction sua sponte when the jury's verdict is not supported by legally sufficient evidence.
13 The majority contends that if we accept that district courts have the discretion to refuse to consider untimely motions for acquittal, then we must also accept that district courts have the discretion to convict defendants whom they know to be innocent. Ante, at 431. The imaginative suggestion that some district judges might choose to convict those they believe to be innocent surely does not justify the conclusion that other judges should be required to do so.
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