Opinion ID: 721442
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sanchez's Right to Appeal His Sentence

Text: 9 At the time of the sentencing hearing, the district court was required by Rule 32(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to advise Sanchez of his right to appeal his sentence: after sentence is imposed following a plea of guilty ... the [district] court shall advise the defendant of any right to appeal the sentence. Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(a)(2) (1993). Although this directive now appears, in revised form, in Rule 32(c)(5), its substance remains unchanged. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(c)(5) (1995); Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(c)(5) advisory committee's note. Because Rule 32(a)(2) was in effect at the relevant time, we shall refer to it rather than to its successor. 10 It is plain from the sentencing hearing record that the trial court failed to advise Sanchez of his right to appeal. Sanchez, however, did not raise this issue in his section 2255 motion. The Government concedes that, in spite of this omission, because appellant claims a denial of his constitutional right to appeal, his Rule 32(c) claim would be reviewed, in any event. Brief for Appellee at 18. We agree. The Supreme Court has shown an awareness of the formidable problems faced by section 2255 applicants who prepare their petitions without the assistance of counsel and who may not even be aware of errors which occurred at trial. Rodriquez v. United States, 395 U.S. 327, 330, 89 S.Ct. 1715, 1717, 23 L.Ed.2d 340 (1969). In Rodriquez, the petitioner based his claim that he had been denied his right of appeal solely on the failure of his counsel to file one. Id. at 328, 89 S.Ct. at 1717. Nevertheless, the Court concluded sua sponte from the trial transcript ... that the trial judge erroneously failed to advise petitioner of his right to appeal. Id. at 331, 89 S.Ct. at 1718. We follow the Court's example and reach the same conclusion here. Having done so, and because both parties have briefed the issue, we address the consequences of the trial court's error. 11 A majority of the circuits that have considered violations of Rule 32(a)(2) have held that a district court's failure to advise a defendant of his right to appeal constitutes error per se that requires an appellate court to vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing. See United States v. Benthien, 434 F.2d 1031, 1032 (1st Cir.1970); Reid v. United States, 69 F.3d 688, 689 (2d Cir.1995); United States v. Deans, 436 F.2d 596, 599 n. 3 (3d Cir.1971); Paige v. United States, 443 F.2d 781, 782 (4th Cir.1971); United States v. Butler, 938 F.2d 702, 703-04 (6th Cir.1991). But see United States v. Drummond, 903 F.2d 1171 (8th Cir.1990) (applying harmless error standard to Rule 32(a)(2) violation); Tress v. United States, 87 F.3d 188 (7th Cir.1996) (overruling previous per se rule and applying harmless error standard). The Ninth Circuit has stated that it subscribes to the rationale behind the per se rule but noted that there are occasions where Rule 32(a)(2) admonishments are unnecessary, such as where the defendant has waived his right to appeal in a plea agreement. Biro v. United States, 24 F.3d 1140, 1142 (9th Cir.1994). 12 The rationale for holding that a Rule 32(a)(2) violation constitutes error per se is clear: 13 The obvious purpose of Rule 32(a)(2) is to insure that all defendants who might wish to appeal are fully aware of their appeal rights. That purpose ... is best [319 U.S.App.D.C. 184] served by allowing a section 2255 motion to reinstate an appeal whenever the trial court has failed to comply with the rule, without regard to whether or not the defendant had obtained knowledge of his rights from some other source.... Our holding insures that all defendants will receive the protection the rule was intended to provide. It will at the same time serve to warn district judges of the necessity of strict compliance. 14 Benthien, 434 F.2d at 1032. Moreover, the policy of preventing excessive litigation [over whether the defendant had been fully informed of his rights by his counsel] justifies a strict and literal enforcement of Rule 32(a)(2). Reid, 69 F.3d at 689. Accordingly, we join the majority of circuits that have considered the issue and hold that (1) the rule is specific in its command, Paige, 443 F.2d at 782, and (2) the failure of the district court to advise Sanchez of his right to appeal his sentence was error per se that requires a remand for resentencing. 15 In its appellate brief, the Government argued that a remand would be pointless. Contending that all of appellant's sentence-related claims were presumably raised in his § 2255 motion, the Government noted that 16 Appellant [had] raised approximately nine claims in his section 2255 motion, seven of which he has not raised on appeal from the denial of [that] motion. Since the district court's denial of these other seven claims ... are ripe for appellate review, appellant's decision to raise on appeal only two of these nine claims should properly be viewed as an abandonment of his other seven claims.... [A]ppellant has tested the waters on the merits of his sentence-related claims at the district court. Having proceeded in that manner ... appellant cannot now claim that the choice of proceeding on his substantive claims should not be counted against him or that he is entitled to yet another opportunity to litigate his sentence. 17 Brief for Appellee at 15-17. Furthermore, the Government maintained that Sanchez must be deemed to have defaulted any other sentence-related claims that he failed to raise in the section 2255 motion. It acknowledged, as it must, that Sanchez did preserve his sentencing entrapment claim but argued that it is without merit. In order to avoid a remand, therefore, the Government requested that we review the entrapment claim now under the standard of review applicable to direct appeals, thus giving Sanchez the remedy to which he would be entitled were we to remand the case. 18 At oral argument, the Government offered an alternative approach. Again requesting that we review the entrapment claim under a direct appeal standard of review, the Government suggested that, should a remand for resentencing be necessary, we treat as having been abandoned only those issues raised in the section 2255 motion that Sanchez did not pursue on this appeal. Under this approach, Sanchez could bring any as-yet-unidentified claims on a direct appeal from his new sentence. 19 While we remand the case for resentencing to enable Sanchez to proceed with his appeal, we resolve the entrapment claim in part B, infra, as both parties request. We reject, however, the suggestion that Sanchez is limited, on direct appeal, to only those sentence-related challenges that he failed to raise in his motion. The Supreme Court has stated that the rules of procedure do not require sacrifice of the rules of fundamental justice. Hormel v. Helvering, 312 U.S. 552, 557, 61 S.Ct. 719, 721, 85 L.Ed. 1037 (1941). Further, pro se litigants are held to less stringent standards than those who are counseled by attorneys. Cf. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) (per curiam) (holding pro se complaint to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers). Courts will go to particular pains to protect pro se litigants against the consequences of technical errors if injustice would otherwise result. See Beavers v. Lockhart, 755 F.2d 657, 662 (8th Cir.1985) (addressing claim not raised in pro se petitioner's habeas motion); Hanson v. Circuit Court of the First Judicial Circuit of Illinois, 591 F.2d 404, 408 n. 8 (7th Cir.1979) (addressing claim raised for first time on appeal in accordance with the policy of the courts to remove technical obstacles in lawsuits brought by pro se prisoners [319 U.S.App.D.C. 185] ). Council v. Clemmer, 165 F.2d 249, 250 (D.C.Cir.1947) (permitting pro se habeas petitioner to amend his petition). To be sure, we do not license prisoners proceeding pro se to disregard the rules of procedure; we merely refuse to compound the deprivation of Sanchez's right to appeal by treating his later section 2255 motion as his only bite at the apple for the claims raised there. 20 Because Sanchez had not been advised of his right of appeal, he was denied the opportunity to raise his sentencing-related claims under the more lenient standards that would have applied had he appealed his sentence in the normal course. Instead, Sanchez was required to challenge his sentencing collaterally by filing a section 2255 motion, which he drafted without the benefit of an attorney who could have counseled him to limit his claims to those essential to his collateral attack, namely, the trial court's failure to advise him of his right to appeal. 21 In a section 2255 proceeding involving claims that he could have brought but failed to bring on direct appeal, the movant must establish both cause for the procedural default and actual prejudice resulting from the claimed error. See, e.g., United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 167-68, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 1594-95, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982); United States v. Kleinbart, 27 F.3d 586, 590 (D.C.Cir.1994). Thus to have pursued, in this appeal, the substantive sentencing-related claims that Sanchez unnecessarily raised in his motion would have subjected them to the more stringent cause and prejudice standard that applies in proceedings seeking collateral relief. See United States v. Pollard, 959 F.2d 1011, 1020 (D.C.Cir.1992) (in a § 2255 collateral challenge, an appellant, in order to gain relief ... is obliged to show a good deal more than would be sufficient on a direct appeal from his sentence). On the other hand, had these claims not been included in his motion, there is no question that, following remand and resentencing, Sanchez would have been free to pursue all of his substantive sentence-related claims under the more lenient review standards that are applicable to direct appeals. 22 In light of these circumstances, and to insure[ ] that [Sanchez] will receive the protection [Rule 32(a)(2) ] was intended to provide, Benthien, 434 F.2d at 1032, we will not penalize him for the overinclusiveness of his section 2255 motion. Accordingly, we will allow him to raise all of his substantive challenges in a new appeal with the exception of the sentencing entrapment claim, which we will now address. We note, of course, that Sanchez's guilty plea precludes him from challenging the conviction itself. See United States v. Fitzgerald, 466 F.2d 377, 379 (D.C.Cir.1972) (voluntary guilty plea waives right to assert defense to conviction).