Opinion ID: 2832675
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: Spaulding filed the instant appeal contending the district court erred in: (1) rejecting the second plea agreement he entered into with the government, which agreement would have dismissed the charges set out in the indictment and allowed Spaulding to plead guilty to two counts of using a communication facility in the commission of a drug transaction; and (2) refusing to consider the sentencing guidelines in fashioning an appropriate sentence. In response, the government asserts the second proposed plea agreement “would have resulted in a just sentence under the circumstances of this case.” Nevertheless, it asserts the district court acted within the bounds of its discretion when it rejected that plea agreement. The government concedes the sentence imposed by the district court is procedurally unreasonable. After oral argument, this court noted a potential jurisdictional defect and issued the following order to show cause: The district court accepted Spaulding’s original plea agreement on September 11, 2012, and set the matter for sentencing. The district court held a sentencing hearing on December 6, 2012, and imposed a sentence of 137 months’ imprisonment. On December 7, 2012, Spaulding filed a motion for relief. The motion asked the district court to correct substantive errors it made in arriving at Spaulding’s sentence under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(a). In the alternative, the motion asked the district court to allow Spaulding to withdraw his guilty plea pursuant to the terms of Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(d). On December 10, 2012, before the government had a chance to respond to Spaulding’s motion, the district court (1) denied the -13- Rule 35(a) motion to correct sentence and (2) granted Spaulding’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea. This case then proceeded through a further failed plea agreement and an eventual trial. On appeal, Spaulding challenges orders entered by the district court after he was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea on December 10, 2012. . . . . Rule 11(e) specifically provides: “After the court imposes sentence, the defendant may not withdraw a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, and the plea may be set aside only on direct appeal.” Numerous courts have held the prohibition set out in Rule 11(e) (as well as earlier versions of the rule) is jurisdictional. See, e.g., United States v. Farley, 72 F.3d 158, 162 (D.C. Cir. 1995); United States v. Ruiz-del Valle, 8 F.3d 98, 102 (1st Cir. 1993); United States v. Todaro, 982 F.2d 1025, 1028 (6th Cir. 1993); United States v. Baker, 790 F.2d 1437, 1438 (9th Cir. 1986). This court has so indicated in unpublished dispositions. United States v. Rayford, 552 F. App’x 856, 859 (10th Cir. 2014); United States v. Scott, 17 F. App’x 784, 785 (10th Cir. 2001). The committee notes accompanying the amendments to Fed. R. Crim. P. 32(d) in 1985 (the original predecessor to the current Rule 11(e)) further support the notion a district court completely lacks power under the Rules of Criminal Procedure to allow a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea after sentencing. The parties are ordered to brief the following three questions: (1) Did the district court lack jurisdiction to allow Spaulding to withdraw his guilty plea after sentence was imposed on December 6, 2012? (2) If the district court lacked jurisdiction to allow Spaulding to withdraw his guilty plea, are all the actions taken by the district court after December 6th null and void? (3) If the answer to the first two questions is “yes,” how should this court proceed with this case? Order of March 18, 2015. The government responded to the show cause order by arguing the rule set out in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(e) is jurisdictional. It recognized that the provisions of the various versions of the Federal Rules (e.g., Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of -14- Bankruptcy Procedure) do not necessarily implicate a court’s subject matter jurisdiction. Gov’t Supp. Brief at 4-5 (citing, inter alia, Eberhart v. United States, 546 U.S. 12, 16 (2005), and Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U.S. 443, 456 (2004)). Nevertheless, the government asserts Rule 11(e) is jurisdictional because it “implements the statutory directive contained in 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c), which provides that a ‘court may not modify a term of imprisonment once it has been imposed,’ except under certain stated conditions.” Gov’t Supp. Brief at 6. Because the district court lacked jurisdiction to grant Spaulding’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea after imposition of sentence, the government contends the district court’s actions after that point were void. Thus, the government asserts, the proper course is to remand the matter to the district court to vacate the judgment it entered on August 27, 2013, and reinstate the judgment based upon the original December 6, 2012, sentence. In his supplemental brief, Spaulding does not address whether the provisions of Rule 11(e) are jurisdictional. Instead he asserts Rule 11(e) is not implicated in this case. Spaulding notes his motion to withdraw the guilty plea underlying the December 6, 2012, judgment requested that the district court grant the motion nunc pro tunc to a time prior to imposition of sentence. By granting the motion to withdraw, Spaulding asserts the district court must have granted the relief requested, i.e., ordering the withdrawal of the guilty plea to be retroactive to a time before the imposition of sentence. Alternatively, he asserts his motion -15- to withdraw amounted to a collateral attack on his conviction and notes that Rule 11(e) does not apply to collateral attacks on a conviction or sentence. Spaulding concedes, however, that if the district court’s order allowing him to withdraw his guilty plea implicated Rule 11(e), the district court lacked jurisdiction and all its subsequent actions were null and void. If that is the case, Spaulding asserts he should be allowed to file a new direct appeal challenging the validity of the judgment entered by the district court on December 6, 2012.