United States v. Andre HorneUnited States v. Andre Horne
Lead Opinion
Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge D.H. GINSBURG.
Separate opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge BUCKLEY.
Concurring opinion filed by Circuit Judge BUCKLEY.
Andre Horne appeals from the decision of the district court denying his presen-tence motion to withdraw his guilty plea because his lawyer substantially underestimated the sentence he would receive. We hold that the appellant was not deprived of effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea. We therefore affirm thе judgment of the district court.
I. BACKGROUND
Horne was indicted on three counts in October 1989. He was charged with possession with intent to distribute more than five grams of crack cocaine, in violation of
Pursuant to an agreement with the prosecution, the appellant pled guilty to the first and third counts, and the second count would later be dismissed. Before accepting his plea, the district court, per
After a hearing the district court denied Horne’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Noting that Horne neither asserted his innocence nor offered any defense going to the merits of the charges to which he had pled guilty, and that he had been informed of the maximum possible penalty provided by law, as required by
II. Analysis
Horne offers two grounds for reversal of the district court decision to deny his motion to withdraw his guilty plea: (l) that the mistaken advice of counsel constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment, and (2) that the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion because the appellant’s misapprehеnsion of the consequence of the plea provides a “fair and just reason” for allowing him to withdraw it pursuant to
A. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
In Hill v. Lockhart, supra, the Supreme Court applied to the guilty plea context the two-part test for determining ineffective assistance counsel that it had previously announced in Strickland v. Washington,
Because Horne fails to satisfy the prejudice requirement, we do not need to address the question whether his plea was within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases. See Strickland,
Nothing in the present record suggests that Horne had (or even now has) any intention of pleading not guilty and going to trial. Horne was clearly apprised of the statutory maximum penalty. He also “confirmed that nobody had ... induced him into pleading guilty” and “that no one had predicted, prophesied or promised him a particular sentence.” United States v. Smith,
Horne has offered nothing to suggest that he would have succeeded if he had gone to trial, and indeed “the ‘overwhelming’ evidence suggests that appellant’s decision to plead guilty was a rational choice.” Lopez-Nieves v. United States,
In a post-argument submission, Horne draws our attention to United States v. Day,
B. Abuse of Discretion
If a motion for withdrawal of a plea of guilty ... is made before sentence is imposed, the court may permit withdrawal of the plea upon a showing by the*837 defendant of any fair and just reason. ...
A court in this circuit considers three factors when determining whether there is any fair and just reason for allowing a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea. See United States v. Mathis,
Second, the court considers such prejudice to the public’s legitimate interests as would arise if it were to grant the defendant’s belated request to go to trial. See United States v. Russell,
Finally, and “most importantly, the district court must consider whether there was some [constitutional or procedural] defect in the original plea.” Mathis,
Now Horne wants to withdraw his plea only because he has since realized that his sentence would indeed be—as the court had warned it might be—more severe than his counsel had predicted. It is neither unfair nor unjust, however, to hold the defendant to his solemn representation to the court, which he made after he was warned by the court of his maximum exposure and of the impossibility of determining the applicable sentencing range prior to the preparation of the presentence report. See Sweeney,
Although
if the information given by the court at theRule 11 hearing corrects or clarifies the earlier erroneous information given by the defendant’s attorney and the defendant admits to understanding the court’s advice, the criminal justice system must be able to rely on the subsequent dialogue between the court and the defendant.
United States v. Lambey,
Rule 11 now provides for the placing of plea agreements on the record, for full inquiry into voluntariness of the plea, for detailed advice to the defendant concerning his rights and the consequences of his plea and a determination that the defendant understands these matters, and for the determination of the accuracy of the plea.
Advisory Committee notes on the 1983 Amendment to
III. ConClusion
The appellant’s Sixth Amendment claim fails because he has failed to establish that, but for counsel’s error, he would have pleaded not guilty and insisted on going to trial. Moreover, the district court, which had complied with the requirements of the
Affirmed.
writing separately for the court:
We wish to make a recommendation concerning the taking of guilty pleas. Our reason for writing separately is to emphasize that our recommendation is just that— a suggestion that is without the force of law.
With the advent of the Guidelines promulgated by the United States Sentencing Commission, certain goals of the
Becausе the Guidelines have largely replaced the statutes as the determinants of the maximum penalty facing criminal defendants, we recommend that, wherever feasible, the district court make their pre-sentence reports available to defendants before taking their pleas. By doing so, sentencing judges (and reviewing courts) will have greater confidence that pleas are both willing and fully informed. And because a Guidelines policy statement requires district courts to review presentenсe reports before accepting plea agreements, see United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 6Bl.l(c), p.s. (Nov. 1992), providing the defendant with a copy of the report should not, in most cases, materially delay the plea proceedings.
In making this recommendation, we are mindful of the strict resource constraints faced by the district court’s probation office and the severe time pressures confronting the district judges themselves. Hence, we do not suggest that defendants have a right to peruse their presentence report before pleading. Nor do we question that, in a given case, it may not be feasible to await the completion of a report or that there may be valid reasons for withholding the report until after the plea is accepted. We do no more than suggest the desirability of such a practice in the run of cases. Cf. United States v. Salva,
Concurrence Opinion
concurring:
I write, first, to underscore something that ought to be self-evident, but which experience suggests may not be. The standards we apply in our review of a district court’s exercise of its discretion under
Thus, while we will be reluctant to overturn the denial of a withdrawal motion where the defendant has failed to assert his innocence, the district court need not give dispositive weight to such a failure. See, e.g., United States v. Joslin,
In sum, in this circuit, the standard governing a district court’s exercise of its discretion under
My second purpose in writing is to call attention to what I see as a fundamental tension in present-day pleading procedure. I have no doubt that our opinion decides this case properly under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the United States Sentencing Guidelines, and our circuit precedent; and given the overwhelming weight of the evidence against Andre Horne, there can be no doubt that justice has been done here. Yet I am left with a sense of unease that I suspect was shared by the district judge when he denied Horne's motion to withdraw his pleа. See Transcript of July 6, 1990, withdrawal hearing at 20 (disparity between predicted and actual sentencing range “so great, it gives me great pause.”) Horne’s decision to forego the exercise of a constitutional right was not as informed as it could have been, hence not as voluntary as it might have been. To those at work adapting the Rules and Guidelines to minimize such shortfalls, I offer some observations.
As a consequence of the binding nature of the Sentencing Guidelines, plea agreements today will be negotiated with an eye on the penalties to be found in the Guidelines rather than in the United States Code. With the significance of the Guidelines fixed in his mind as the “real world,” a defendant is apt to view a trial judge’s mandatory reference to the statutory maximum sentence for what it has become — a formality; and it should surprise no one that a defendant might dismiss it as such. In such a case, the
In this case, as required by the Rule, the district сourt advised Horne that he faced a statutory maximum sentence of fifty years in jail, almost twice the maximum permitted by the Guidelines as ultimately computed. Transcript of Feb. 20, 1990, plea hearing at 21. The court also advised him, in accordance with the Rule, that “there are guidelines and they may apply to your case”; and that “after we find out what the guidelines are in your case the Judge has the authority to impose a sentence that could be more severe or less severe than the sеntence called for by the guidelines.” Id. at 14-15. While faithful to the Rule, these cautions suggest that the Guidelines are advisory only. Yet we must assume that a defendant will know that his sentence will be determined by them. As Justice Scalia noted in Mistretta v. United States,
The difficulties created by this tension between
The weighing of an assured penalty against the risks inherent in going to trial on a more serious charge may have little relevance to the moral aspects of a plea. Yet if, after his plea is accepted, a defendant should find that thе maximum penalty facing him is significantly larger than the one he would have willingly accepted as an alternative to going to trial, he may well be trapped by the formal implications of a guilty plea and the failure of the
If, as I believe, the new Guidelines regime has created a gap between what