Whether a court may sua sponte enter post-trial convictions on lesser-included offenses that the jury had no authority to return

QUESTION PRESENTED After a jury convicted the petitioners of federal crimes, the district court granted their post-verdict motions for judgments of acquittal. But the district court then sua sponte convicted them of lesser-included offenses that were not submitted to the jury and that the government never advanced, either in its proposed jury instructions or in its response to the defendants’ post-verdict motions. The Tenth Circuit affirmed, even while recognizing that other circuits require jury instructions on lesser-included offenses as a prerequisite for entering convictions on those offenses. The question presented is: May a court sua sponte enter post-trial convictions on lesser-included offenses that the jury had no authority to return? i