Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1026_2c83.pdf
Page Number: 20

Cite as:  586 U. S. ____ (2019) 

3 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

bargained.3 

The  trial  court  accepted  the  plea  agreements  and,  as
required,  sentenced  Garza  to  10  years’  imprisonment.
However, the court noted that if the cases had been “con-
sidered  individually,”  a  “harsher  sentence”  might  have
been  warranted  due  to  Garza’s  “history  of  violent  crime”
and the “gratuitous aggression” displayed by Garza in the 
aggravated-assault case.  Record 336. 

Four months later, Garza filed the petitions for postcon-
viction  relief  at  issue  here.  Among  other  things,  he 
claimed  that  his  pleas  were  not  voluntary  and  that  his
counsel  had  been  constitutionally  ineffective  for  failing  to
file an appeal despite repeated requests that he do so.  For 
relief,  Garza  requested  that  his  sentences  “run  concur-
rent.”  Id.,  at  207.  The  trial  court  appointed  counsel  to
pursue  Garza’s  collateral  challenges. 
It  subsequently
dismissed  Garza’s  claim  that  his  plea  was  involuntary 
for  “lack  of  supporting  evidence,”  but  it  allowed  the 
ineffective-assistance  claim  to  proceed.  App.  to  Pet  for
Cert. 3a, 29a. 

In  response  to  Garza’s  ineffective-assistance  claim,
Idaho  submitted  an  affidavit  from  Garza’s  trial  counsel, 
which  stated,  “Garza  indicated  to  me  that  he  knew  he 
agreed not to appeal his sentence(s) but he told me that he 
wanted  to  appeal  the  sentence(s)”  anyway.  Record  151. 
The  trial  counsel  explained  that  he  did  not  honor  that 
request  because  “Garza  received  the  sentence(s)  he  bar-
gained  for  in  his  [Idaho  Criminal  Rule]  11(f )(1)(c)  Agree-
ment,” and he told Garza “that an appeal was problematic 
because  he  waived  his  right  to  appeal  in  his  Rule  11
agreements.”  Ibid.   Garza,  through  his  newly  appointed 
—————— 

3 See id., at 96, 108 (“I understand that my plea agreement is a bind-
ing  plea  agreement.  This  means  that  if  the  district  court  does  not 
impose the specific sentence as recommended by both parties, I will be
allowed to withdraw my plea of guilty pursuant to Rule 11(d)(4) of the
Idaho Criminal Rules and proceed to a jury trial”); see also id., at 128.