Opinion ID: 201238
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Colón's criminal history

Text: 47 It is undisputed that Peña did not independently investigate his client's criminal history before recommending that Colón enter into the plea agreement. Instead, according to Peña, he relied on Colón's representation that he had been convicted only once, for robbery, prior to this case. There is no per se rule that an attorney's failure to investigate independently his client's criminal history before advising him to accept a plea offer is ineffective assistance. Clients should answer truthfully their attorney's inquiries about their past convictions, and lawyers are entitled to rely reasonably on the explicit representations of clients about their criminal histories. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052 (explaining that counsel need not undertake investigations if they reach a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary). We agree with one of our sister circuits that a determination of whether reliance on a client's statement of his own criminal history constitutes deficient performance depends on the peculiar facts and circumstances of each case. United States v. Pease, 240 F.3d 938, 941-42 (11th Cir.2001). See also Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052 (In any ineffectiveness case, a particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel's judgments.); United States v. Russell, 221 F.3d 615, 621 (4th Cir.2000) (When representing a criminal client, the obligation to conduct an adequate investigation will often include verifying the status of the client's criminal record, and the failure to do so may support a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel.) 9 48 In this case, as in many cases involving claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, a factual dispute must be resolved before a court makes any judgment about the effectiveness of Peña's performance in dealing with Colón's criminal history. According to Colón, as recounted to the district court, he gave Peña a document that detailed Colón's full criminal history way at the beginning of their relationship. As we have noted, Peña disagreed with the account Colón gave the district court. He first told the court that [t]he only information [Colón] gave me regarding the prior convictions of him was a charge for robbery and that was all the information I had from him regarding his prior convictions. Then, once Colón pointed out that Peña had the document detailing his criminal history with him in court, Peña admitted that we do have the document that was handed by him but this document was not handed previously to the change of plea hearing. This was handed afterwards. 49 It is somewhat curious that Peña says that he received the document after the change of plea hearing, which was held May 2. The district court commented that Peña was surprised about Colón's career offender status, as revealed in the PSR, at the November 9 hearing. Presumably, if Peña had received the document before receipt of the PSR (transmitted to Peña on October 2, according to the district court docket), he would not have been surprised at the November 9 hearing and would not have waited to renegotiate the plea agreement until after receipt of the PSR. On the other hand, if Peña had received the document from Colón after he received the PSR, it seems likely that he would have said that Colón gave him the criminal history document after Peña received the PSR, not after the change of plea hearing. 50 On remand, the district court will have to engage in fact finding on what information Colón gave Peña about his criminal history and when he gave it to him. If Colón misinformed Peña about Colón's prior convictions when Peña recommended that Colón enter into the original plea agreement, that fact would have to be weighed carefully in deciding whether Peña still should have conducted some independent investigation of Colón's criminal history. 10 On the other hand, if Colón provided Peña with a document accurately detailing his past convictions prior to the recommendation of Peña that he accept a plea agreement that would not withstand scrutiny because of those past convictions, Peña's recommendation would seem to be clear evidence of ineffectiveness of counsel. 51