Opinion ID: 1349892
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the jeopardy bar

Text: The defendant Dempsey urges that further reconsideration of his plea is foreclosed because jeopardy attached once the circuit court orally agreed to accept his nolo contendere plea, pursuant to the plea agreement, and orally pronounced sentence thereon. In his view, the lack of a written order accepting the plea and imposing a sentence is not material. We disagree. Although general language can be found to the effect that jeopardy attaches once a plea of guilty or nolo contendere is accepted by a trial court, see, e.g., United States v. Cambindo Valencia, 609 F.2d 603, 637 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 940, 100 S.Ct. 2163, 64 L.Ed.2d 795 (1980); United States v. Jerry, 487 F.2d 600, 606 (3d Cir.1973); United States v. Bullock, 579 F.2d 1116, 1118 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 967, 99 S.Ct. 456, 58 L.Ed.2d 425 (1978); Nardone v. Mullen, 113 R.I. 415, 418, 322 A.2d 27, 29 (1974); but see United States v. Combs, 634 F.2d 1295, 1298 (10th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 913, 101 S.Ct. 1987, 68 L.Ed.2d 304 (1981), this statement is usually made without any extended analysis of double jeopardy principles. We agree with the following remarks made in United States v. Cruz, 709 F.2d 111, 113-14 (1st Cir.1983), where the court reviewed a number of these cases which comment on the attachment of jeopardy in a plea bargaining situation: None of these cases, however, analyze in depth the reasons for the application of the double jeopardy rule and all of them are factually distinguishable from the situation before us. For several reasons we do not think that jeopardy must attach automatically and irrevocably in all instances when a guilty plea is accepted. Acceptance of a guilty plea to a lesser offense carries no implied acquittal of the greater offense and for this reason is not the same as a verdict. See Klobuchir v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 639 F.2d 966 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1031, 102 S.Ct. 566, 70 L.Ed.2d 474 (1981); Hawk v. Berkemer, 610 F.2d 445 (6th Cir.1979). Moreover, the `ordeal' of a Rule 11 proceeding is significantly different from the ordeal of trial: Rule 11 hearings are not trials, and the defendant here was never in jeopardy of conviction on any charge except the lesser offense to which his plea was offered. (Footnote omitted) We have generally followed the United States Supreme Court's holdings with regard to when jeopardy attaches, as summarized in United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 569, 97 S.Ct. 1349, 1353, 51 L.Ed.2d 642, 650 (1977): The protections afforded by the [Double Jeopardy] Clause are implicated only when the accused has actually been placed in jeopardy.... This state of jeopardy attaches when a jury is empaneled and sworn, or, in a bench trial, when the judge begins to receive evidence. (Citations omitted) See Syllabus Point 1, Adkins v. Leverette, W.Va., 264 S.E.2d 154 (1980); [18] Syllabus Point 4, Manning v. Inge, W.Va., 288 S.E.2d 178 (1982). [19] We are not aware of any United States Supreme Court opinion which discusses when jeopardy attaches in a plea bargaining situation. The rules regarding the attachment of jeopardy at a jury or a nonjury trial [20] cannot be directly transposed to the plea bargain process because of the inherent differences between the plea bargain procedure and the formal adjudicatory process arising from a criminal trial. A plea agreement is proposed after a process of informal and off-the-record negotiations between a prosecutor and a defense attorney, who cooperate with each other in seeking to resolve the case in a way that is acceptable to both parties. As one commentator observed, [P]lea bargaining commonly occurs in private where no victim, member of the public, or other watchdog is likely to see it and howl. Alschuler, Implementing the Criminal Defendant's Right to Trial: Alternatives to the Plea Bargaining System, 50 U.Chi.L.Rev. 931, 962 (1983). Once the parties have arrived at a plea bargain, there is no adversarial relationship between a prosecutor and a defense attorney in the traditional sense because both parties seek to have a court ratify and implement the agreement. [21] Plea agreements frequently contain multiple conditions which, besides sentencing recommendations, may cover a host of matters, such as agreements to allow pleas to lesser included offenses, to dismiss indictment counts or other indictments, to forego additional charges, or to forego recidivist proceedings. In some instances, the obligation of a prosecutor to recommend a sentence or a dismissal of charges under a plea agreement is predicated on a defendant agreeing to testify truthfully in later trials. In these circumstances, the plea will be accepted pursuant to the plea bargain with the agreed sentence either imposed or deferred. If the defendant materially violates a condition of his plea agreement, courts have uniformly permitted the plea bargain to be set aside by the prosecutor, who may then pursue the charges previously covered by the plea agreement. [22] E.g., United States v. Nathan, 476 F.2d 456 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 823, 94 S.Ct. 171, 38 L.Ed.2d 56 (1973); United States v. Simmons, 537 F.2d 1260 (4th Cir.1976); United States v. Donahey, 529 F.2d 831 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 828, 97 S.Ct. 85, 50 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976); United States v. Calabrese, 645 F.2d 1379 (10th Cir.); cert. denied, 451 U.S. 1018, 101 S.Ct. 3008, 69 L.Ed.2d 390, cert. denied, 454 U.S. 831, 102 S.Ct. 127, 70 L.Ed.2d 108 (1981); State v. Nall, 379 So.2d 731 (La.1980); Sweetwine v. State, 42 Md.App. 1, 398 A.2d 1262 (1979), aff'd, 288 Md. 199, 421 A.2d 60, cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1017, 101 S.Ct. 579, 66 L.Ed.2d 477 (1980); State v. Rivest, 106 Wis.2d 406, 316 N.W.2d 395 (1982); Annot., 16 A.L.R.4th 1089 (1982). Although these courts do not address the jeopardy consequences in this situation, these cases do suggest facets of the plea bargaining process that merit consideration in fashioning a double jeopardy rule. Plea bargaining is far removed from the traditional guilt-finding process attendant to a jury or nonjury trial. The primary purpose of a plea bargain arrangement is to avoid the factual guilt determination process, as well as to avoid the ordeal of multiple trials. The court's role is not to make a formal adjudication of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on the charge to which the defendant is willing to plead, [23] nor does the court determine whether the defendant is innocent of the charges which the prosecutor is willing to dismiss. The central role of the court in a plea bargain, insofar as the defendant is concerned, is to ascertain that the plea is voluntarily and intelligently made and that the defendant understands its consequences and the constitutional rights he is waiving. As we have previously noted, there are courts which have stated that jeopardy attaches once a plea is accepted by the judge and have required the judge to be bound by the plea agreement, including the stipulated sentence. However, to hold that a court is bound to a sentence at the time a plea is accepted and before sentence is actually pronounced and executed is contrary to those cases which hold that a court may increase a previously imposed sentence prior to the time the defendant commences serving under it. [24] In Neidinger v. United States, 647 F.2d 408, 410 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 859, 102 S.Ct. 311, 70 L.Ed.2d 155 (1981), the Fourth Circuit explained in reference to the authority of a court to modify a sentence, that [c]onstitutional protection against double jeopardy does not attach prior to the commencement of a sentence. See, e.g., United States v. Bynoe, 562 F.2d 126 (1st Cir.1977); Acme Poultry Corp. v. United States, 146 F.2d 738 (4th Cir.1944), cert. denied, 324 U.S. 860, 65 S.Ct. 865, 89 L.Ed.2d 1417 (1945). See also United States v. Ford, 632 F.2d 1354, 1380 (9th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 934, 101 S.Ct. 1399, 67 L.Ed.2d 369 (1981); United States v. Davidson, 597 F.2d 230, 233 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 861, 100 S.Ct. 127, 62 L.Ed.2d 83 (1979); State v. Ryan, 86 N.J. 1, 8, 429 A.2d 332, 336, cert. denied, 454 U.S. 880, 102 S.Ct. 363, 70 L.Ed.2d 190 (1981). [25] We have adopted a similar rule, without, however, referring to jeopardy principles, in Syllabus Point 2 of State ex rel. Roberts v. Tucker, 143 W.Va. 114, 100 S.E.2d 550 (1957): Where imprisonment has begun in satisfaction of a valid sentence, the trial court is without jurisdiction, even during the same term of court, to set aside such valid sentence and impose an additional or increased sentence. Roberts relied on State ex rel. Williams v. Riffe, 127 W.Va. 573, 578, 34 S.E.2d 21, 23 (1945), where we did refer to double jeopardy: [I]n criminal cases where the judgment has been satisfied in whole or in part, [the rule] is limited to those cases in which the trial court reduces the penalty imposed. Cases in which the penalty is increased are treated as subjecting the accused to double jeopardy and therefore the second sentence is void, leaving in effect the original sentence. [26] We conclude that the entry of a nolo contendere or a guilty plea pursuant to a plea bargain and the oral pronouncement of a sentence by a circuit court does not impose a double jeopardy bar where the defendant has not served any portion of the sentence. We reject the idea that jeopardy attaches when a plea is accepted as being inconsistent with the complex and contingent nature of plea bargaining and as impeding the authority of a court to decide ultimately whether the plea agreement serves the public interest in the fair administration of justice. We therefore conclude that in the present case, the oral acceptance of Dempsey's nolo contendere plea, pursuant to a plea agreement, and the oral imposition of sentence does not impose a jeopardy bar that can be claimed by Dempsey where he has not served any portion of the sentence.