United States v. Marvin Cates, 950 F.3d 453

Cates was stopped for a vehicle equipment violation; deputy saw a revolver; cocaine and heroin later found; charged under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).
Motion to suppress the seized items was denied; parties submitted a plea agreement on September 12, 2018; Cates waived all appeals except ineffective-assistance claims.
A magistrate judge conducted a Rule 11 hearing, found the plea knowing and voluntary, and the district court accepted the plea on October 3, 2018.
Cates’s original counsel withdrew; new counsel filed to withdraw the plea alleging duress and also asserting Cates had told counsel before acceptance that he wanted to withdraw but was told it was too late.
District court held a hearing on December 13, denied the motion to withdraw, found no duress, and sentenced Cates to 262 months under the ACCA.
On appeal Cates argued his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to withdraw the plea when asked; the Seventh Circuit reviewed for plain error and affirmed, holding the record insufficient to resolve the Strickland claim and advising a § 2255 collateral attack instead.

Issue	Cates's Argument	Government/District Court Argument	Held
Whether counsel was constitutionally ineffective for not moving to withdraw Cates’s guilty plea when Cates allegedly asked before the plea was accepted	Counsel failed to move to withdraw the plea when Cates timely asked; that failure was deficient and prejudiced Cates because he lost the chance to go to trial	The record does not establish the alleged timely request; the claim was not adequately raised below, and the record is inadequate to resolve credibility or prejudice	Affirmed: record insufficient under Strickland and Massaro; claim better developed in a § 2255 collateral proceeding

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (establishes two-prong ineffective-assistance test: deficient performance and prejudice)
Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500 (2003) (ineffective-assistance claims are generally resolved in collateral § 2255 proceedings to develop a full record)
United States v. Shaker, 279 F.3d 494 (7th Cir. 2002) (defendant may withdraw guilty plea before the court accepts it)
United States v. Flores, 739 F.3d 337 (7th Cir. 2014) (warns against raising ineffective-assistance claims on direct appeal and endorses collateral attack route)
United States v. Arami, 536 F.3d 479 (5th Cir. 2008) (applied plain-error review and reversed where timely withdrawal before acceptance was improperly denied)
United States v. Banks, 405 F.3d 559 (7th Cir. 2005) (discusses Strickland presumption that counsel’s choices are reasonable)