68
Opinion of the Court
thing to do with either the harmless- or plain-error rule. Under the former, the Government's opportunity and burden is to show the error harmless based on the entire record before the reviewing court, see United States v. Hasting, 461 U. S. 499, 509, n. 7 (1983); under the plain-error rule the Government likewise points to parts of the record to counter any ostensible showing of prejudice the defendant may make, see United States v. Young, 470 U. S. 1, 16 (1985). Under either rule, the Government's opportunity is to persuade with what it has, not to initiate further litigation. Yet further litigation is what the Government wanted in McCarthy. It argued that if the Court did not think that the existing record demonstrated that McCarthy's plea had been knowing and voluntary, the Court should remand for a further hearing with new evidence affirmatively making this showing, 394 U. S., at 469. When the Court said no, it made no reference to harmless or plain error, but cited the object of Rule 11 to eliminate time-wasting litigation after the fact about how knowing and voluntary a defendant really had been at an earlier hearing. Id., at 469-470. And it expressed intense skepticism that any defendant would succeed, no matter how little he understood, once the evidence at a subsequent hearing showed that he had desired to plead. Id., at 469. In sum, McCarthy had nothing to do with the choice between harmless-error and plain-error review; the issue was simply whether the Government could extend the litigation for additional evidence.
Vonn's attempt to read the McCarthy Court's mind is therefore purely speculative. What is worse, however, his speculation is less plausible than the view that the Court would probably have held that McCarthy satisfied the plain-error burdens if that had mattered. There was no question that the trial judge had failed to observe Rule 11, and the failing was obvious. So was the prejudice to McCarthy. Having had no explanation from the judge of the knowing and willful state of mind charged as of the time of the tax
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