What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
United States of America,
Plaintiff, Appellant
v
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendant, Appellee.
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendants, Cross-appellants
v
United States of America.
Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
of the Board
Plaintiff, Appellants,
v
United States of America,
Defendant, Appellee.
This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
Note that if an individual is listed by name, but their appearance in the case is as a government official, then they should be counted as a government rather than as a private person. For example, in the case "Billy Jones & Alfredo Ruiz v Joe Smith" where Smith is a state prisoner who brought a civil rights suit against two of the wardens in the prison (Jones & Ruiz), the following values should be coded: number of appellants that fall into the category "natural persons" =0 and number that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials" =2. A similar logic should be applied to businesses and associations. Officers of a company or association whose role in the case is as a representative of their company or association should be coded as being a business or association rather than as a natural person. However, employees of a business or a government who are suing their employer should be coded as natural persons. Likewise, employees who are charged with criminal conduct for action that was contrary to the company policies should be considered natural persons.
If the title of a case listed a corporation by name and then listed the names of two individuals that the opinion indicated were top officers of the same corporation as the appellants, then the number of appellants should be coded as three and all three were coded as a business (with the identical detailed code). Similar logic should be applied when government officials or officers of an association were listed by name.
Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives". If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the appellant is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.

Opinion:
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Rudolph CROOK, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 79-2559
Summary Calendar.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
Nov. 27, 1979.
Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Dec. 26, 1979.
John Rudolph Crook, pro se.
J. R. Brooks, U. S. Atty., Michael V. Rasmussen, Asst. U. S. Atty., Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before COLEMAN, FRANK M. JOHNSON, Jr., and GARZA, Circuit Judges.
Fed.R.App.P. 34(a), 5th Cir. R. 18.
PER CURIAM:
This is an appeal from the denial of a pro se petition for relief filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court.
On December 18, 1978, John Rudolph Crook, the appellant, entered a plea of guilty to one count of possession of heroin with intent to distribute. 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and ten years of special parole.
At the guilty plea proceedings, the district judge informed Crook that the maximum sentence for his offense was fifteen years or $25,000 or both, plus a special parole term of not less than three years. Crook contends that the judge violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by failing to explain that there was no statutory maximum on the length of the special parole term he could impose. See Fed.R.Cr.P. 11(c)(1) (requiring judge to determine that defendant understands maximum possible penalty provided by law).
We find this contention to be without merit. In open court and after Crook was sworn, the exchange at issue was recorded as follows:
THE COURT: Do you know what the maximum sentence is under this charge?
DEFENDANT CROOK: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: What is it?
DEFENDANT CROOK: Fifteen years or 25,000.
THE COURT: Fifteen years or $25,000 or both, plus a special parole term of not less than three years, if it is your first conviction and not less than six years if you have had a prior conviction. A special parole term. Do you understand that?
DEFENDANT CROOK: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Do you understand what that means?
DEFENDANT CROOK: Yes, sir.
There was no violation of the rule as contended.
But even assuming such a violation, Crook is not entitled to relief. Although Crook now alleges that he was unaware of the unlimited possible length of the special parole term, he does not contend that if he had been so advised he would not have pled guilty. He claims only a technical violation of the rule. It is well-established that such a claim does not justify collateral relief. United States v. Timmreck, 441 U.S. 780, 99 S.Ct. 2085, 60 L.Ed.2d 634 (1979); Lambert v. United States, 600 F.2d 476, 477 (5th Cir. 1979) (applying Timmreck). See also Keel v. United States, 585 F.2d 110 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc).
Crook’s other claim is that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel and that he was entitled to an evidentiary hearing in order to prove such denial.
This claim is also without merit. In this Circuit, in cases in which a guilty plea is entered, the duty of defense counsel is to make certain that the plea is entered voluntarily and knowingly. See Carbo v. United States, 581 F.2d 91, 93 (5th Cir. 1978). The record reflects that such was the case here. Crook did not make any specific factual allegations indicating otherwise, only a general statement that more thorough investigation of his case might have led his counsel to advise him to plead not guilty. Given this setting, an evidentiary hearing was not necessary. See United States v. Sanderson, 595 F.2d 1021, 1022 (5th Cir. 1979).
AFFIRMED.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 0