Opinion ID: 744794
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea

Text: 11 We review the decision of a district court to deny a motion to withdraw a guilty plea for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Messino, 55 F.3d 1241, 1247 (7th Cir.1995). The court's discretion is guided by Rule 32(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which provides that the court may permit the plea to be withdrawn if the defendant shows any fair and just reason. See United States v. Hyde, --- U.S. ----, ----, 117 S.Ct. 1630, 1635, 137 L.Ed.2d 935 (1997) (discussing fair and just reason standard). In applying this standard, the district court was on solid ground with respect to both its understanding of the governing legal principles and its assessment of the facts. With respect to the governing legal principles, the court realized that a guilty plea, validly entered in accordance with the strict requirements of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, ought not be lightly discarded. As Justice Stewart put it in an analogous context, [s]olemn declarations in open court carry a strong presumption of verity. Blackledge v. Allison, 431 U.S. 63, 74, 97 S.Ct. 1621, 1629, 52 L.Ed.2d 136 (1977). In United States v. Groll, 992 F.2d 755 (7th Cir.1993), Judge Cudahy, writing for the court, emphasized that, in evaluating a motion to withdraw a plea of guilty, a district court should evaluate the proffered reasons for the withdrawal against the testimony and other evidence introduced at the Rule 11 hearing, which have a presumption of verity. Id. at 758; accord United States v. Trussel, 961 F.2d 685, 689 (7th Cir.1992). Of course, we have never implied that a motion to withdraw a plea that is substantiated by evidence can be dismissed out of hand. In such a circumstance, the district court, depending upon the situation presented by the particular case, must permit the withdrawal of the guilty plea, conduct an evidentiary hearing, or deny the motion with an explanation as to why the evidence is insufficient or incredible. Groll, 992 F.2d at 758. 12 Here, the district court, presented with the motion to withdraw in the midst of the sentencing hearing, chose, prudently we believe, the latter course. First, the court found that Mr. Silva's statement that he pleaded guilty to the tax charge because he had been given false information was incredible. The court noted that the receipts in issue were his own and that Mr. Silva had given no credible reason as to why he could not have known at the time he entered his plea that the statements were false. Similarly, the district court found incredible Mr. Silva's assertion that there were actually two separate conspiracies, the earlier of which was now barred by the statute of limitations. He had admitted the contrary in entering his plea of guilty--a plea entered only after a long period of negotiation and consultation. For the same reason, held the district court, any defense of entrapment, in addition to being supported by only the assertions of Mr. Silva, was too late. See Trussel, 961 F.2d at 690. The facts were known to him at the time that he entered the guilty plea. There was no indication that the defendant's initial plea was the product of circumstances that would undermine confidence in the voluntariness or intelligence of that plea. See United States v. Coonce, 961 F.2d 1268, 1276 (7th Cir.1992). 13 Notably, in evaluating Mr. Silva's motion, the court did not rely only upon the weakness of his assertions but also on the fact that his account was contrary to all the other testimony that the court had heard. We must, of course, defer to the district court's estimation of the weight to attach to the evidence. See id. at 1275. 14 The district court was not dealing here with a serious allegation of newly discovered evidence or of a previously unknown or unavailable defense. Serious allegations of that character often require a more plenary examination. See United States v. Morrison, 967 F.2d 264, 268 (8th Cir.1992). Here, Mr. Silva's petition is more properly characterized, as the district court recognized, as a belated misgiving that he had overestimated the strength of the government's case. A defendant is not entitled to withdraw his plea merely because he has misapprehended the strength of the government's case or, upon reevaluation of the situation, can conceive of an arguable defense. See Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 757, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1473, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970); United States v. Nichols, 986 F.2d 1199, 1203 (8th Cir.1993). We will not degrade the otherwise serious act of pleading guilty into something akin to a move in a game of chess. Hyde, --- U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 1634. 15 The decision of the district court to deny the motion to withdraw the guilty plea was hardly an abuse of discretion. It was grounded in a commonsense evaluation of the representations made in the motion in light of the unchallenged testimony presented at the Rule 11 hearing and of the witnesses heard by the court during the sentencing hearing.