Opinion ID: 3040342
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Validity of Appellant’s Plea

Text: [4] A plea agreement must be knowing and voluntary, which requires that “the defendant possess[ ] an understanding of the law in relation to the facts.” McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 466 (1969). In addition, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 requires judges to determine that a plea has a factual basis. Fed. R. Crim. P. 11. To satisfy this requirement, “[t]he judge must determine ‘that the conduct which the defendant admits constitutes the offense charged in the indictment or information or an offense included therein to which the defendant has pleaded guilty.’ ” McCarthy, 394 U.S. at 467 (citation omitted). Here, Jones argues that his plea is invalid because he did not understand that the facts to which he stipulated in his plea agreement failed to qualify as wire fraud. Because Jones’s argument is based entirely on the same misapprehension of the law discussed above, the argument lacks merit. UNITED STATES v. JONES 237