Opinion ID: 1463880
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Advice of Counsel Claim

Text: For similar reasons, we also reject Moussaoui's claim that the district court constructively denied him his right to counsel by restricting defense counsel's ability to discuss the classified exculpatory evidence with him prior to his acceptance of the guilty plea, rendering his plea invalid. Since Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963), it has been clear that a guilty plea to a felony charge entered without counsel and without a waiver of counsel is invalid. Brady, 397 U.S. at 748 n. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1463; see Broce, 488 U.S. at 569, 109 S.Ct. 757 ([W]hen the judgment of conviction upon a guilty plea has become final and the offender seeks to reopen the proceeding, the inquiry is ordinarily confined to whether the underlying plea was both counseled and voluntary.); see McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 n. 14, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970) ([A] defendant pleading guilty to a felony charge has a federal right to the assistance of counsel.). The waiver of constitutional rights accompanying a guilty plea has to be a knowing, intelligent act[ ] done with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences, Brady, 397 U.S. at 748, 90 S.Ct. 1463, and an intelligent assessment of the relative advantages of pleading guilty is frequently impossible without the assistance of an attorney, id. at 748 n. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1463. Where a defendant alleges ineffective assistance of counsel, he must ordinarily demonstrate that counsel performed deficiently and that, but for counsel's errors, the defendant would not have pled guilty and would instead have insisted on proceeding to trial. United States v. Faris, 388 F.3d 452, 459 (4th Cir.2004). This standard derives from the test for ineffective assistance of counsel set forth in Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 58-59, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985), which relied in turn on the standards announced in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Id. at 459 n. 4. However, [i]n unusual circumstances, a defendant may obtain reversal of his conviction based on the inadequacy of counsel even in the absence of a showing that would satisfy Hill or Strickland. Id. (citing United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 659-60, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984)). Such a constructive denial of counsel results from circumstances where the performance of counsel [is] so inadequate that, in effect, no assistance of counsel is provided at all. Cronic, 466 U.S. at 654 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 2039; see Lenz v. Washington, 444 F.3d 295, 303-04 (4th Cir.2006) (stating that a constructive denial of counsel arises only when a lawyer entirely fails to subject the prosecution's case to meaningful adversarial testing, and thus might as well be absent from the proceedings) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); Childress v. Johnson, 103 F.3d 1221, 1228 (5th Cir.1997) (applying Cronic to the guilty plea context). [19] Moussaoui contends that the Protective Order constructively denied him counsel under Cronic because it prohibited counsel from discussing the substance of the exculpatory evidence with him prior to his guilty plea. See Geders, 425 U.S. at 91, 96 S.Ct. 1330 (holding that trial court's order barring defendant from consulting with defense counsel during an overnight recess deprived defendant of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel). To the extent we would adopt some Cronic -like standard for guilty pleas, however, Moussaoui falls well short of demonstrating that his guilty plea was entered under circumstances amounting to no assistance of counsel at all. Cronic, 466 U.S. at 654 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 2039. In fact, Moussaoui cannot even demonstrate that his plea was uncounselled on the matter of exculpatory evidence. First, the restrictions on counsel's ability to communicate with Moussaoui regarding pretrial discovery matters were not so onerous as to render counsel effectively absent during the guilty plea proceeding. The right to communicate with counsel at any point in the proceedings is not absolute. [I]n certain contexts there can be an important need to protect a countervailing interest, which may justify a restriction on defendant's ability to consult with his attorney if the restriction is carefully tailored and limited. In re Terrorist Bombings, 552 F.3d at 127 (internal quotation marks omitted); see United States v. Hung, 667 F.2d 1105, 1107-08 (4th Cir. 1981) (per curiam) (holding that protective order prohibiting defense counsel from disclosing contents of certain documents did not violate defendant's Fifth or Sixth Amendment rights where trial court allowed defense counsel to review Jencks Act material to assist in determining whether material should be disclosed, but precluded counsel from consulting with defendant about the material); United States v. Bell, 464 F.2d 667, 671-72 (2d Cir.1972) (counsel barred from disclosing sensitive airport hijacker profiling system); cf. Morgan v. Bennett, 204 F.3d 360, 368 (2d Cir.2000) (barring counsel from disclosing identity of a cooperating witness to the defendant); United States v. Herrero, 893 F.2d 1512, 1526-27 (7th Cir.1990) (barring counsel from revealing name of a confidential informant to the defendant). That principle applies in this case. The Government's interest in protecting the classified information during the discovery and appeal process justified the limited restrictions upon Moussaoui's right to communicate with counsel pending completion of the CIPA process and preparation of unclassified substitutions. Cf. Abu Ali, 528 F.3d at 254 (A defendant and his counsel, if lacking in the requisite security clearance, must be excluded from hearings that determine what classified information is material and whether substitutions crafted by the government suffice to provide the defendant adequate means of presenting a defense and obtaining a fair trial.) (emphasis added). Second, Moussaoui has failed to demonstrate that he was completely denied counsel's advice regarding the evidence at issue, or that counsel's advice was so lacking that it amounted to none at all. As discussed previously, Moussaoui knew that the exculpatory information existed and had been produced to his counsel, knew the substance of the information, and knew that the process for evaluating and declassifying that information was ongoing. He was also well aware that the process would be completed upon our remand to the district court from the previous appeal. In any event, the Protective Order did not preclude defense counsel from advising Moussaoui that the evidence existed, as they did prior to the July 2002 guilty plea attempt, or from providing advice on how the classification review process would be completed. In fact, it appears from the record that Yamamoto and Moussaoui did discuss the issue, but Moussaoui disagreed with counsel about the effect of his plea upon the substitution process and Moussaoui made the informed and strategic decision to plead guilty before the process was completed. For its part, the district court employed a cautious manner of dealing with Moussaoui's guilty plea. At the ex parte plea proceeding, the court ensured that Moussaoui had received the advice of his counsel on these matters. Moussaoui made it clear at this hearing and the public Rule 11 hearing that he had met with his attorneys, who had advised that he not plead guilty, but that he was freely and voluntarily choosing to reject that advice. While a guilty plea must be counseled in the sense that the defendant has a right to effective assistance of counsel in making the decision, in the end it is the defendant [who] has `the ultimate authority' to determine `whether to plead guilty.' Florida v. Nixon, 543 U.S. 175, 187, 125 S.Ct. 551, 160 L.Ed.2d 565 (2004) (quoting Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 751, 103 S.Ct. 3308, 77 L.Ed.2d 987 (1983)); see also Miller v. Angliker, 848 F.2d 1312, 1322 (2d Cir.1988) ([T]he right to decide whether to plead guilty ... belongs to the defendant, not to counsel.); cf. Roe v. Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. 470, 485, 120 S.Ct. 1029, 145 L.Ed.2d 985 (2000) (Like the decision whether to appeal, the decision whether to plead guilty ( i.e., waive trial) rested with the defendant.). It is counsel's duty to ensure that the defendant is sufficiently aware of the facts and circumstances surrounding the plea so that the defendant can make a reasonably informed decision. Here, Moussaoui has failed to demonstrate the type of complete denial of counsel rising to the level of a constructive denial of counsel under the Sixth Amendment. On the contrary, it appears that counsel was determined to effectively represent Moussaoui, and did so, in spite of Moussaoui's uncooperative behavior and indeed belligerence towards them.