Opinion ID: 2736831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Adams’s Guilty Plea

Text: Adams’s principal contention on appeal is that the district court violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure when it failed to inquire during the plea allocution about the impact Adams’s heart condition and medications had on his ability to enter a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary plea of guilty. As Adams failed to raise any claim that Rule 11 was violated in the court below, we review this claim, asserted for the first time on appeal, for plain error. United States v. Yang Chia Tien, 720 F.3d 464, 469 (2d Cir. 2013).2 Plain error review requires “a defendant to demonstrate that (1) there was error, (2) the error was plain, (3) the error prejudicially affected his substantial rights, and (4) the error seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” United States v. Cook, 722 F.3d 477, 481 (2d Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). “[T]o show plain error in the context of Rule 11, ‘a defendant must establish that the violation affected substantial rights and that there is a reasonable probability that, but for the error, he would not have entered the plea.’” Yang Chia Tien, 720 F.3d at 469 (quoting United States v. Garcia, 587 F.3d 509, 515 (2d Cir. 2009)). 2 Although Appellant repeatedly argued in his written submissions that the plain error standard of review was not applicable here, even going as far as to suggest that de novo review was appropriate, he admitted on the record during oral argument that plain error is the correct and only possible standard of review to be applied in this case. 6 Given the district court’s knowledge of Adams’s medical problems, it is possible that the district judge should have asked Adams about his heart condition and medication at the plea hearing, and that its failure to do so was error. See United States v. Lora, 895 F.2d 878, 880 (2d Cir. 1990) (“The Second Circuit has adopted a standard of strict adherence to Rule 11.”); United States v. Rossillo, 853 F.2d 1062, 1066 (2d Cir. 1988) (“[I]f there is any indication . . . that [the] defendant is under the influence of any medication, drug or intoxicant, it is incumbent upon the district court to explore on the record defendant’s ability to understand the nature and consequences of his decision to plead guilty.”); see also Yang Chia Tien, 720 F.3d at 468–71. To satisfy the plain error standard applicable to this case, however, the defendant must also establish “a reasonable probability that, but for the error, he would not have entered the plea.” Yang Chia Tien, 720 F.3d at 469 (internal quotation marks omitted). We need not conclusively resolve whether the district court erred in conducting the Rule 11 proceedings because Adams has made no such showing. Adams has not demonstrated any reasonable probability that he would not have pleaded guilty, or that the judge would not have accepted his plea, if the district court had inquired about his medical condition or medications. His behavior following entry of his guilty plea confirms that Adams fully intended to plead guilty. Unlike other cases in which defendants have claimed soon after their pleas that their medical conditions vitiated any conclusion that their pleas were knowing and voluntary, Adams made no effort to have his asserted misunderstanding of the proceedings or the consequences of his plea corrected in the two years prior to sentencing or in an otherwise timely manner. Cf. Yang Chia Tien, 720 F.3d at 466–68 (defendant unsuccessfully sought to withdraw a plea within seven months of 7 pleading guilty and prior to sentencing); Rossillo, 853 F.2d at 1064 (defendant unsuccessfully sought to withdraw his plea within eleven months of pleading guilty and prior to sentencing). Adams neither filed nor sought to file a motion to withdraw his plea during the almost two years separating the plea proceedings and his sentencing.3 Only when he did not receive the below-Guidelines sentence he had hoped for did Adams assert, for the first time in this appeal, that his medications and heart condition may have adversely affected his ability to enter a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary plea. On the record before us, therefore, we conclude that Adams has not demonstrated plain error in connection with his guilty plea, and we affirm Adams’s conviction.