Opinion ID: 526038
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Family Pressure.

Text: 32 Rivera-Martinez contends that his change of plea was the product of duress in that he was coerced by the stressful situation to plead guilty. Specifically, defendant claims to have tendered his plea while in an agitated emotional state brought on by telephone conversations with his hospitalized mother (who was also under indictment). Defendant says that he yielded to his mother's urging, and calls attention to his statement during the Rule 11 hearing that his family has suffered too much. 33 Rivera-Martinez misperceives the focus of the plea-retraction inquiry: while evidence of this stripe is probative of an accused's motivation for pleading guilty, it does not necessarily show coercion, duress, or involuntariness. Criminal prosecutions are stressful experiences for nearly all concerned--particularly defendants and their families. It is to be expected that feelings will run strong within a family unit and that loved ones will advise, counsel, implore, beseech, and exhort defendants to take--or abjure--myriad courses of action. The relevant question for plea withdrawal is not whether the accused was sensitive to external considerations--many defendants are--but instead whether the decision to plead was voluntary, i.e., a product of free will. See Ramos, 810 F.2d at 314; see also Buckley, 847 F.2d at 1000 n. 6 (threat that brother otherwise might be indicted did not make [defendant's] plea involuntary as a matter of law); Wojtowicz v. United States, 550 F.2d 786, 792 (2d Cir.) (rejecting intra-familial coercion as basis for plea retraction), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 972, 97 S.Ct. 2938, 53 L.Ed.2d 1071 (1977). 34 In this case, the district court found that defendant's plea was not the product of coercive or debilitating emotional strain. Rivera-Martinez, 693 F.Supp. at 1364. That finding derives abundant record support. The Rule 11 inquiry was searching, a circumstance of some importance. See Buckley, 847 F.2d at 999 (thorough dialogue with defendant at Rule 11 hearing bolsters district court's findings); Ramos, 810 F.2d at 312 (similar). The likelihood that the change of plea was studied, rather than the product of an emotional outburst, is strengthened by a medley of other circumstances: defendant has not claimed to be innocent of the charges to which he pled guilty; he waited a full seven weeks before moving to withdraw his guilty plea; he produced no evidence of distraction apart from his naked assertion; and his responses during the Rule 11 hearing, in the aggregate, demonstrate a grasp of the issues and a high probability that the plea was volitional and considered. See United States v. Crosby, 714 F.2d 185, 192 (1st Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1045, 104 S.Ct. 716, 79 L.Ed.2d 178 (1984). 35