Opinion ID: 2192648
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: hearing on motion to withdraw guilty plea

Text: On March 7, 1995, Bennett, through his attorney, filed a motion to withdraw the guilty plea and on June 30 and July 14, 1995, Judge Cushenberry conducted a hearing on the motion. Bennett testified that he did not shoot Gleason, that he was not present at the scene of the murder, that he was unfamiliar with the area where the murder occurred, that he did not know Lewis Curtis at all, and that he didn't know Ricky Walker but had seen him before. In addition, he related that he had asked his plea attorney's investigator to show him pictures of the place where the murder occurred because he was unfamiliar with that specific location. [7] Bennett also testified to a history of frequent epileptic seizures since 1987. After suffering a seizure, Bennett claimed, he would lose his memory for about five or six hours. He stated that in the days following a seizure he feels [r]eal groggy and kind of out of it. You can't really remember a lot and then you be like worried and confused about a lot of things. [8] He testified that his medication also affected his mental functioning. The phenobarbital have you lose your speech, it have you like a lapse and have you forgetting a lot. Bennett said that he had consistently told his lawyer he did not want to plead guilty. [E]very time he came to see me I always told him I'm not taking the plea in this case. He testified that he told his lawyer the same thing the evening of Monday, February 6, 1995, when counsel asked him if he wanted to plead guilty, and again the next morning. He believed he would be going to trial when he went to court on Monday, February 6, and again on Tuesday morning. He also said that he had expressed dissatisfaction with his lawyer through several letters to the court because he felt the lawyer was not working in his best interest and only wanted Bennett to plead guilty so he could get the case over with. Bennett claimed he did not really remember pleading guilty. He testified that two days before pleading guilty, on February 5, 1995, he suffered a really bad seizure and did not get himself together until four or five days later. He stated that when his lawyer asked [him] about the plea, he didn't know what he was saying and just said okay without realizing what he was agreeing to. He said that he didn't really understand the questions the judge asked him, even though he said yeah, I understand the plea. He also testified that he signed the jury trial waiver form because he believed it was for a jury. [9] Bennett asserted that later on the day that the plea was entered, he called his attorney and told an investigator or somebody at his attorney's office that he wanted to withdraw his plea. He also claimed he asked his sister to contact his attorney to request that his plea be withdrawn, since Bennett was having trouble reaching his attorney. Bennett did not again speak with his attorney until March 2, 1995, when the lawyer visited him at the prison facility in Lorton, Virginia, and Bennett told the attorney he wanted to take his plea back because he was innocent. Bennett's father testified that his son began having seizures when he was nine years old and that the seizures had become progressively worse as Bennett got older. The father testified that when Bennett has a seizure, he goes into a shake, blacks out and is dizzy, druggy, and not himself for up to a week following the seizure. Bennett's father suggested that his son's intelligence had been affected by repeated injury to his head resulting from falls which occurred during seizures. The father further speculated that his son's mental problems were also a result of over-medication received in prison. On cross-examination, Bennett's father testified that it was readily apparent to him and to others when his son had recently suffered a seizure. Following a seizure, Bennett would stand with his head down or look sick. Also, [s]ometimes you'll call him and he don't answer right away. In addition, the father related that [s]ometimes he say yes when he should say no. The father testified that it was clear that his son had recently suffered a seizure on the day he pled guilty. [10] Bennett's father also testified that when he saw his son following the guilty plea two or three days later, his son initially didn't really know he had pleaded guilty. The father claimed that when he asked his son why he had pled guilty his son said that he did what his lawyer told him to do. Dr. Khurrolah Abbei, a witness called by the government, testified that he was responsible for monitoring the phenobarbital and dilantin Bennett took to control his seizures. Because Dr. Abbei began treating Bennett when Bennett was transferred to Lorton following the guilty plea, [11] the doctor was unable to testify from personal knowledge whether Bennett had a seizure on February 5, 1995, two days prior to the guilty plea. In addition, Dr. Abbei related that he had never observed Bennett either during or following a seizure and conceded that he therefore could not testify from personal experience to the effect Bennett's seizures had on him. Dr. Abbei did state, however, that Bennett suffered from grand mal seizures, which are the worst kind of seizure and can last up to half an hour. Dr. Abbei also testified that it takes about half an hour to recover from the effects of a grand mal seizure. Dr. Abbei informed the court that Bennett's medical records from the spring of 1995 indicated that Bennett had experienced seizures at Lorton during that period. In addition, Bennett's medical records from that period showed that Bennett had complained on May 18, 1995, that he didn't want to take his prescribed phenobarbital because it was making him sleepy, that he had failed to take his prescribed medication for several days after that complaint, and that he reported having a seizure on May 22, 1995. Finally, Dr. Abbei testified, based on his review of the medical records, that Bennett had normal levels of dilantin and phenobarbital in his system on February 7, 1995, the day he pled guilty. He also observed that typical side effects of phenobarbital include drowsiness, lack of alertness, and slurred speech, but that these effects should subside within a week of beginning to take the drug. [12] Another government witness, the plea attorney, [13] testified that he had discussed the guilty plea with Bennett on the evening of Monday, February 6, prior to the court proceeding, when the plea attorney met with Bennett at the District of Columbia Jail for more than an hour, and again the next morning, before Bennett pled guilty. [14] When asked whether it seemed that Bennett understood the substance of those conversations and was able to communicate with him concerning the plea, the attorney responded, Most definitely. Plea counsel also testified that there was nothing unusual or different about his conversations with Bennett just prior to the plea as compared with previous conversations. On cross examination, plea counsel agreed that Bennett was not the most sophisticated client in the world. However, counsel indicated that in general Bennett did not have difficulties communicating or comprehending; rather, it was counsel's belief that he was stubborn. Plea counsel also testified that he was aware that Bennett was subject to seizures and that Bennett was taking dilantin; however, he was unaware that Bennett was also taking phenobarbital or any narcotic drug. Moreover, plea counsel testified that he had not believed the dilantin would affect Bennett's ability to understand the plea proceeding, since his concern prior to that time had been with the failure of prison staff to provide Bennett with his medication. Further, plea counsel testified that he believed Bennett's medication and, apparently, seizure problems had been resolved in the fall of 1994. [15] Plea counsel also testified that he was aware of Bennett's family's concerns that Bennett did not understand the significance of the plea proceeding and of his family's belief that he was innocent. [16] Counsel stated that he did not raise the family's concerns about Bennett's lack of comprehension to the court because he believed Bennett did, in fact, understand the significance of the plea proceeding. [17] Finally, plea counsel testified that the first contact he had with Bennett following the guilty plea was on March 2, 1995,  over three weeks after the plea  when he visited Bennett at Lorton regarding sentencing. [18] At that time, Bennett announced before we even said hello to each other that he wanted to withdraw the plea.