In 1983, the defendant entered a guilty plea to a drug charge. Two years later, he filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging, inter alia, that on the date of the entry of his plea, he was misinformed as to the potential penalty for his offense. After a hearing, the Superior Court denied the defendant’s motion. The defendant now appeals to this Court.
On March 15, 1983, the defendant entered a guilty plea in Superior Court to a charge of Delivery of a Non-Narcotic Schedule II Controlled Substance (Methamphetamine) in violation of 16 Del.C. § 4752. At the time of the plea, the defendant was a second offender. He was thus subject to a mandatory minimum term of three years incarceration and a maximum term of 15 years. 16 Del.C. § 4763. At the time of the plea, however, the defendant’s public defender indicated to the Court that the defendant was aware that the range of punishment for this offense was a mandatory minimum term of three years and a maximum term of 30 years. During the plea colloquy, the trial judge similarly informed the defendant that the range of punishment was from a mandatory minimum of three to a maximum of 30 years of incarceration plus a fine. Subsequent to the defendant’s guilty plea, the Superior Court sentenced him to imprisonment for a period of 10 years with appropriate credit for time served, suspended for probation after service of the mandatory minimum three years, during which time the defendant was not subject to probation or parole.
Exactly two years after his guilty plea was entered, on March 15, 1985, the defendant moved to withdraw the plea on
On appeal, the defendant contends he should have been permitted to withdraw his guilty plea because he was misinformed as to the maximum penalty he could receive. This misinformation, argues the defendant, caused his “misapprehension or mistake ... as to his legal rights” and thus warrants the withdrawal of his plea under State v. Insley, Del.Supr.,
In Insley, this Court stated:
To grant the application [of the defendant to withdraw his guilty plea] the trial court must find that the plea was not voluntarily entered or was entered because of misapprehension or mistake of defendant as to his legal rights. If such circumstances be proved, the application should be readily granted; otherwise, it should be denied.
The maximum possible sentence provided by law for conviction of the offense charged is the most important “consequence of the plea.” Accordingly, it must be spelled out clearly and accurately upon the record by the Trial Judge in order to insure that the waiver of important constitutional rights, which occurs when the defendant enters a guilty plea, is made “knowingly and intelligently.”
Id. at 162-63 (footnotes and citations omitted).
The defendant contends that Ins-ley and Wells are controlling in the case presently before us. We disagree. Superi- or Court Criminal Rule 32(d) provides that the Superior Court may permit a defendant to withdraw his guilty plea after sentencing only to correct manifest injustice.
This Court recognized in Wells that the maximum possible sentence is the most important consequence of a guilty plea.
Moreover, not all technical defects in accepting a guilty plea justify withdrawal of the plea after sentencing. The United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Timmreck,
Because the technical error in the plea colloquy in the case at bar is insufficient to allow the withdrawal of defendant’s plea in the absence of prejudice amounting to manifest injustice, defendant must show at a minimum that the error influenced his decision to plead guilty. Although he received a sentence within the statutory limits, he now contends that if he had known he was subject to a lesser sentence under the plea, he would have risked a jury trial.
This claim, however, was not the defendant’s original ground for withdrawal of his plea, but was raised for the first time at the hearing on his motion before the Superior Court. The trial judge, in rejecting this new ground for withdrawal under the manifest injustice standard, impliedly found that the disparity in the maximum penalty to which the defendant was subject would have had little effect on his decision to plead guilty. As the Fifth Circuit has stated, “[t]he probability such information [that the possible sentence was less] would have influenced [the defendant] not to change his plea so far outweighs the possibility that the prospect of stiffer punishment may have caused the change, that we refuse to consider the latter as relevant.” United States v. Woodall, 5th Cir.,
In conclusion, we find the defendant has not suffered prejudice amounting to manifest injustice entitling him to withdraw his guilty plea under Superior Court Criminal Rule 32(d). The trial judge did not abuse his discretion in denying defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea.
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AFFIRMED.
Notes
. Superior Court Criminal Rule 32(d) provides:
A motion to withdraw a plea of guilty or of nolo contendere may be made only before sentence is imposed or imposition of sentence is suspended; but to correct manifest injustice the Court after sentence may set aside the judgment of conviction and permit the defendant to withdraw his plea.
. The first portion of Delaware Superior Court Criminal Rule 11 is copied from the Federal Rule as it existed at the time of the defendant’s guilty plea in Timmreck. Superior Court Criminal Rule 11 provides in pertinent part:
A defendant may plead not guilty, guilty or, with the consent of the Court, nolo conten-dere. The Court may refuse to accept a plea of guilty, and shall not accept such plea or a plea of nolo contendere without first addressing the defendant personally and determining that the plea is made voluntarily with understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequences of the plea.
