DUKES v. WARDEN, CONNECTICUT STATE PRISON
No. 71-5172
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 21, 1972-Decided May 15, 1972
406 U.S. 250
James A. Wade argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
John D. LaBelle argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.
MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
On May 16, 1967, petitioner, on advice of counsel, pleaded guilty in the Superior Court of Hartford County, Connecticut, to charges of narcotics violation and larceny of goods. On June 16, 1967, before being sentenced, he informed the court that he had retained new counsel and desired to withdraw his plea and stand trial. The court refused to permit him to withdraw his plea and sentenced him to a term of five to 10 years on the narcotics charge and to a term of two years on the larceny charge. The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed this conviction on his direct appeal challenging the voluntariness of his plea, State v. Dukes, 157 Conn. 498, 255 A. 2d 614 (1969), and the United States Dis-
The two girls were represented by Mr. Zaccagnino of the firm of Zaccagnino, Linardos, & Delaney in the false pretenses case, and petitioner by another lawyer, when petitioner retained the firm to defend him in the narcotics and larceny case. There were also charges pending against petitioner in New Haven and Fairfield counties. He also faced the possibility of prosecution as a second offender, having been convicted in state court in 1961 of breaking and entry and assault.
Petitioner, accompanied by Mr. Zaccagnino, appeared on May 9, 1967, to plead to the narcotics and larceny charges. The lawyer advised him to plead guilty if a plea bargain could be negotiated whereby the State‘s Attorney would consolidate all outstanding charges in and out of Hartford County and agree not to prosecute
Petitioner did not engage new counsel but appeared for trial on May 16 represented by Mr. Delaney, partner of Mr. Zaccagnino who was engaged in another court. Petitioner now showed interest in a plea bargain, and Mr. Delaney and the State‘s Attorney engaged in negotiations, which were interrupted from time to time while Mr. Delaney consulted with petitioner. A plea bargain on the terms Mr. Zaccagnino had urged petitioner on May 9 to accept was finally struck, and petitioner withdrew his not-guilty plea and entered the guilty plea he now attacks. The State‘s Attorney had misgivings because of petitioner‘s expressed dissatisfaction with Mr. Zaccagnino the week before, and the following occurred:
“[State‘s Attorney]: . . . The record also ought to appear that Mr. Delaney is here with him today and he is in the office of Mr. Zaccagnino. I think
the Court might inquire with respect to the representation since there had been some indication that counsel had asked to withdraw the other day. “The Court: Well now, Mr. Dukes, I want to be sure that everything is in order here. . . . Now I want, now Mr. Delaney is here, are you fully satisfied with the services he is rendering you, Mr. Dukes?
“The Accused: Yes, sir.
“The Court: You are. And now you know of course, Mr. Dukes, that-you know of course that the State of Connecticut has the burden of proving you guilty on the charge and you are free to go to trial but you still wish to change your plea, is that correct?
“The Accused: Yes, sir.
“The Court: And do you do this of your own free will, Mr. Dukes?
“The Accused: Yes, sir.
“The Court: And do you know the probable consequences of it?
“The Accused: Yes, sir.
“The Court: Very well, and no one has induced you to do this, influenced you one way or the other? You are doing this of your own free will?
“The Accused: Yes.
“The Court: Very well then. We will accept the change of plea.”
The court set June 2, 1967, for sentencing petitioner. But the documents transferring the New Haven County and Fairfield County charges had not arrived, and the presentence report had not been completed, on that day, and the date was therefore continued to June 16, 1967. By coincidence, however, the judge‘s calendar for June 2 also listed the case of the two girls who, on Mr. Zaccagnino‘s advice, had pleaded guilty to the false pretenses charges and were to be sentenced. That pro-
“[B]oth of them came under the influence of Charles Dukes. Now how they could get in a position to come under the influence of somebody like him, if Your Honor pleases, creates the problem here that I think is the cause of the whole situation.
. .
“Both these girls left their homes, came under the influence of Dukes and got involved. I think, Your Honor, though, that the one thing . . . that should stand in their good stead, as a result of their willingness to cooperate with the State Police they capitulated Dukes into making a plea. I think, Your Honor, since I was on both sides of the case, having been on the other side on the other case I can tell Your Honor that it was these girls that because of their refusal . . . to cooperate with Dukes and to testify against him that capitulated him into taking a plea on which he will shortly be removed from society. . . .”
Mr. Zaccagnino appeared on June 16 to represent petitioner in the proceedings to complete the plea bargain. He was surprised to be told by petitioner that petitioner had obtained new counsel and intended to withdraw his guilty plea and stand trial. It appears from petitioner‘s cross-examination at the state habeas hearing that he had learned on June 2 of Mr. Zaccagnino‘s statements
On this state of facts, the Connecticut Supreme Court concluded that petitioner had not sustained his claim that a conflict of interest on the part of Mr. Zaccagnino rendered his plea involuntary and unintelligent. The court said, 161 Conn., at 344-345, 288 A. 2d, at 62:
“There is nothing in the record before us which would indicate that the alleged conflict resulted in ineffective assistance of counsel and did in fact render the plea in question involuntary and unintelligent. [Petitioner] does not claim, and it is nowhere indicated in the finding, nor could it be inferred from the finding, that either Attorney Zaccagnino or Attorney Delaney induced [petitioner] to plead guilty in furtherance of a plan to obtain more favorable consideration from the court for other clients. . . . Neither does the finding in any way disclose, nor is it claimed, that [petitioner] received misleading advice from Attorney Zaccagnino or Attorney Delaney which led him to plead guilty. . . . Moreover, the trial court specifically found that when [petitioner] engaged Zaccagnino as
We fully agree with this reasoning and conclusion of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Since there is thus no merit in petitioner‘s sole contention in this proceeding-that Mr. Zaccagnino‘s alleged conflict of interest affected his plea-that conflict of interest is not “a reason for vacating his plea.” Santobello v. New York, 404 U. S. 257, 267 (1971) (MARSHALL, J., concurring and dissenting).
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring.
In Santobello v. New York, 404 U. S. 257, 267, I joined MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL‘S separate opinion because I agree that “where the defendant presents a reason for vacating his plea and the government has not relied on the plea to its disadvantage, the plea may be vacated and the right to trial regained, at least where the motion to vacate is made prior to sentence and judgment.” Id., at 267-268.
If a defendant moves to withdraw a guilty plea before judgment and if he states a reason for doing so, I think
But I do not believe that these problems are presented in this case. Certiorari was granted to consider the petitioner‘s contention that his plea was made involuntarily and unintelligently because of his lawyer‘s alleged conflict of interest. This conflict-of-interest claim was not raised until a habeas corpus proceeding, years after judgment had been pronounced. The petitioner does not now challenge the refusal of the trial court to permit him to withdraw his guilty plea before judgment. Rather, he challenges a later refusal by the trial court to vacate his plea on a motion made well after judgment and sentence, presenting a claim not previously raised.
Thus, I agree with the Court that the petitioner‘s claim should be evaluated under the standards governing an attack on a guilty plea made after judgment, not under the far different standards governing a motion to withdraw a plea made before judgment has been pronounced. I also agree with the Court that, evaluated under the former standards, the petitioner‘s claim of involuntariness attributable to his counsel‘s conflict of interest lacks merit.
It is on this understanding that I join the opinion and judgment of the Court.
I dissent. Before sentencing, petitioner stated that he was innocent, and sought to vacate his guilty plea so that he could proceed to trial with new counsel in whom he had confidence. He claims, with ample support in the record, that he was advised to plead guilty-and indeed pressured to do so-by lawyers who did not devotedly represent his interests. I agree with petitioner that he should have been permitted to withdraw his guilty plea.
I
Petitioner, Charles Dukes, was arrested on March 14, 1967, and charged by Hartford, Connecticut, authorities with a violation of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act and with receiving stolen goods. From the beginning, there was a sharp conflict between petitioner and his lawyers over whether he should plead guilty. Two partners from the law firm that petitioner retained, each of whom handled the case on different occasions, tried to convince petitioner to plead guilty to both charges. They argued that because there were several other outstanding charges against him, petitioner‘s best hope was to secure an agreement to consolidate all the charges for disposition together, so that he could receive reasonable concurrent sentences. But petitioner maintained that he was innocent and would not agree to plead guilty. App. 39, 112, 119-120.
Although petitioner had not yet pleaded to either of the charges, the narcotics case was called for trial on May 9, 1967. The conflict between lawyer and client surfaced dramatically when petitioner‘s attorney immediately sought to withdraw from the case “because there happens to be a slight conflict between my client and myself, and it‘s not financial, Your Honor, it is one
Proceedings did not actually resume until a week later, on May 16.1 After conversations in the courthouse that morning, App. 131-132, Dukes agreed to follow the advice of his lawyers, who admittedly had been applying “pressure” on him, App. 112, 140: he pleaded guilty to both the narcotics charge and the larceny-receiving charge. Prior to entry of the pleas, the judge asked petitioner whether he was “fully satisfied with the services [your lawyer] is rendering you. . . .” App. 24, 41.
On June 16, 1967, petitioner appeared for sentencing. His lawyer immediately informed the court that petitioner wished to withdraw his plea and had secured other counsel, from New Haven. Noting the lateness of these developments, petitioner‘s lawyer conceded that “I had a suspicion . . . that this [might] take place because of the problem when he entered the plea. I was maybe a little forceful.” And although he disputed petitioner‘s claim that his present lawyers did not “properly represent him,” counsel once again informed the court that petitioner “doesn‘t have any confidence in me.” App. 28, 31. Petitioner himself told the court about his difficulty in getting a lawyer who would, he thought, do him justice. He also explained that when he pleaded guilty he was still recuperating from his recent suicide attempt, see n. 1, supra, and “didn‘t realize at the time actually what I was pleading to.” App. 32. See n. 8, infra. Thus, contrary to the majority‘s description, petitioner, through his lawyer and in his own voice, gave several specific reasons for wanting to withdraw his plea.
Following the prosecutor‘s statement opposing petitioner‘s request, and without any further inquiry, the judge refused to let petitioner withdraw the guilty plea. When the judge asked Dukes what he wished to say before being sentenced, Dukes replied: “I am rather flabbergasted really, because I didn‘t expect this this morning. It just puzzles me. I am not guilty of the charges. I am not guilty.” App. 33.2 Petitioner was sentenced to
five to 10 years on the narcotics count and two years on the receiving-stolen-property count, as the prosecutor had recommended. The alleged reason for the plea-to gain consolidation of all outstanding charges against petitioner, and thereby secure concurrent sentences on the pending charges-was never fulfilled. On the day of sentencing, petitioner refused to plead guilty to any charges, and consolidation was impossible. App. 30-33, 157.
As just noted, the sentencing judge did not inquire into the facts surrounding either petitioner‘s legal representation or his plea. But these facts were developed at a state habeas corpus hearing,3 and petitioner‘s lack of confidence in his lawyer finds striking support in the hearing record.
That record details the sharp conflict between lawyer and client over the decision to plead guilty. But, more significantly, it reveals that the lawyer who advised petitioner to plead guilty had a gross conflict of interest. Ancillary to the instant proceedings, petitioner‘s lawyer was representing two young women charged with conspiracy to obtain money by false pretenses. Petitioner was a codefendant in this second case, and was represented by another attorney. This second prosecution was unrelated to the matter now before our Court. The two young women pleaded guilty to the false pretenses charges on April 18, 1967, and on June 2, 1967, appeared for sentencing. The sentencing judge was the same judge who was to sentence petitioner two weeks later.
In short, to secure lighter sentences for one set of clients, the lawyer denigrated another of his clients who was to appear before the same judge for sentencing in two weeks. Even absent any showing that the lawyer‘s “pressure” on petitioner to plead guilty was improperly motivated, the gross conflict of interest obvious from counsel‘s remarks lends strong support to petitioner‘s presentence claim that he was not receiving devoted representation from his attorney.
II
I would permit petitioner to withdraw his guilty plea. AS JUSTICE DOUGLAS has recently reminded us,
“However important plea bargaining may be in the administration of criminal justice, our opinions have established that a guilty plea is a serious and sobering occasion inasmuch as it constitutes a waiver of the fundamental rights to a jury trial, Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U. S. 145, to confront one‘s accusers, Pointer v. Texas, 380 U. S. 400, to present witnesses in one‘s defense, Washington v. Texas, 388 U. S. 14, to remain silent, Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1, and to be convicted of proof beyond all reasonable doubt, In re Winship, 397 U. S. 358.” Santobello v. New York, 404 U. S. 257, 264 (1971) (concurring opinion).
See Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U. S. 238, 243 (1969). The precondition for all these rights is the constitutional “right not to plead guilty.” United States v. Jackson, 390 U. S. 570, 581 (1968). A defendant may waive his constitutional rights through a guilty plea, but such waivers are not quickly presumed, and, in fact, are viewed with the “utmost solicitude.” Boykin v. Alabama, supra, at 243. Our decisions, constitutional and statutory, have all recognized that, consistent with the requirements of law enforcement, adequate safeguards can and should exist to give meaning to the right not to plead guilty. E. g., Santobello v. New York, supra; Brady v. United States, 397 U. S. 742, 748 (1970); Boykin v. Alabama, supra; McCarthy v. United States, 394 U. S. 459 (1969); White v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 59 (1963); Machibroda v. United States, 368 U. S. 487 (1962); Walker v. Johnston, 312 U. S. 275 (1941); Kercheval v. United States, 274 U. S. 220 (1927).
I would not view a guilty plea as an irrevocable waiver of a defendant‘s federal constitutional right to a full trial, even where the plea is, strictly speaking, “voluntarily” entered. I adhere to the view that “where the defendant presents a reason for vacating his plea and the government has not relied on the plea to its disadvantage, the plea may be vacated and the right to trial regained, at least where the motion to vacate is made prior to sentence and judgment.” Santobello v. New York, supra, at 267-268 (opinion of MARSHALL, J., concurring and dissenting, with whom BRENNAN, J., and STEWART, J., joined).
Such a rule is a sensible part of the constitutional law of waiver. We view guilty pleas with the “utmost solicitude” because they involve the simultaneous waiver of so many constitutional rights; our system of
Such a rule would not compromise the government‘s interests. “[I]n the ordinary case where a motion to vacate is made prior to sentencing, the government has taken no action in reliance on the previously entered guilty plea and would suffer no harm from the plea‘s withdrawal.” Santobello v. New York, supra, at 268 (opinion of MARSHALL, J., concurring and dissenting). The defendant seeks only the basic opportunity to contest the original charges against him. A full trial could be promptly held, and, since the period between plea and sentencing is usually short, there will have been no substantial delay. Where the government can show specific and substantial harm, the defendant may be held to his plea. But, ordinarily, the government can claim only disappointed expectations. In such a case, the balance of interests must favor vindication of the individual‘s most basic constitutional rights.
In the instant case, petitioner tendered a specific reason for vacating his guilty plea. Protesting his innocence, he claimed that he was not getting satisfactory legal representation and had retained new counsel. The record as already made by June 16, 1967, showed an ad-
But we need not be limited to the bare record already made by June 16, 1967. The trial judge then did not even minimally inquire into the facts behind petitioner‘s rather inarticulate claims. He should have done so, rather than quickly and simply denying the motion to vacate the plea. It was not until the state habeas action that the facts surrounding petitioner‘s representation were developed. As this subsequent record shows, petitioner‘s fears that he was not getting devoted representation had strong objective basis. (It is of course irrelevant that the evidence of a clear conflict of interest may have exceeded even petitioner‘s earlier fears of inadequate representation.6) As the court below concluded,
“Obviously, the derogatory remarks by [the attorney] on behalf of his clients in one case about
This finding of “improper” conduct gives graphic support to petitioner‘s presentence claim that his lawyers were not properly representing his interests, the main reason petitioner gave for wanting to withdraw his plea.
There is no need to decide whether this conflict of interest deprived petitioner of his Fourteenth Amendment right to counsel, or functioned to make his guilty plea “involuntary.” It is sufficient to conclude here that, before sentencing, petitioner‘s plausible dissatisfaction with counsel constituted a sufficient reason for withdrawing his guilty plea.7 The majority appears to equate the questions, suggesting by its analysis that if the plea was neither involuntary nor secured and “affected” by unconstitutionally ineffective counsel, it may not be vacated. But this is to equate the situations before and after sentencing. I think we are required to apply a much less rigorous standard before sentencing. The point in this case is that (1) petitioner sought to vacate his plea
“[Dukes] claimed consistently to me that he didn‘t make any sale of narcotics, and so I told him what I thought about the case, after reviewing the evidence. So from the beginning, Dukes wanted a trial, and I probably thought I might have been too forceful, but it sometimes happens that your judgment, you‘re trying to impose upon a client, knowing that it‘s in his best interest, at least in your opinion it is, and I told Charlie it would be winning the battle and clearing the way, because there was no way, with these five felony warrants pending against him, that I was able to win them all, because I said no matter what you think about this case, it‘s my opinion that it‘s your best interest to plead guilty, and at no time did I have a conversation whether he was guilty or not. Mr. Delaney handled that at the time of the change of plea, but I know when I talked to him, he maintained he was innocent. At some later date he changed his plea, so I assume there was some conversation about that, and I don‘t know what took place in the meantime, but basically, there
was the reason that I made that statement to the Court, because he was insistent that he wanted to try the case, and I kept trying to get the matter put down, because I didn‘t think it was in his best interest to try it.” App. 120.
Of course, on my view, it is of no real significance that on the day of the guilty plea petitioner expressed satisfaction with counsel. Where the loyalties of counsel are questioned even after the plea is entered, a defendant undercuts the premise of his prior guilty plea and the waiver of rights that plea entailed. Surely the same is true where, as here, the defendant specifically asserts his innocence after pleading.8
When a defendant gives a reason for withdrawing his plea before sentencing, and the reason is a good one, he should be allowed to withdraw the plea and regain his right to a trial. Here, petitioner‘s reason was conflict of interest of his lawyer. A part of this conflict was his lawyer‘s insistence that he plead guilty and petitioner‘s insistence that he was innocent. This is certainly a conflict. No wonder the last words of petitioner before sentencing were:
“I am rather flabbergasted really, because I didn‘t expect this this morning. It just puzzles me. I am not guilty of the charges. I am not guilty.”
I would remand the case with instructions that the plea be vacated and petitioner given an opportunity to replead to the charges in the information.
Notes
“A. I‘m trying to think of the day that the girls got sentenced, because I was not in Court the day they got sentenced, because I know that I wasn‘t in Court that specific day, because that‘s when I was told what was said about me, and so forth and so on, in Court, so I‘m quite sure I wasn‘t in Court that day.” App. to Petitioner‘s Brief 162-163 (emphasis supplied).
The record discloses that on May 10 the case was continued until May 16 for trial. On May 9, as petitioner left the courtroom, he was arrested by Hartford police on other charges. Petitioner attempted suicide while in police custody, and was hospitalized for several days.