Opinion ID: 776773
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Validity of Lucas's guilty plea

Text: 11 Lucas's first argument on appeal is that his guilty plea was not valid because the district court provided erroneous information regarding his potential sentence at the guilty plea hearing. According to Lucas, the district court violated Rule 11(c)(1) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which requires the judge to inform the defendant of ... the mandatory minimum penalty provided by law, if any, and the maximum possible penalty provided by law.... Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1). 12 A guilty plea is valid only if it is entered intelligently and voluntarily. United States v. Layne, 192 F.3d 556, 577 (6th Cir.1999) (citing Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969)). Rule 11 is designed to assist the district judge in making the constitutionally required determination that a defendant's guilty plea is truly voluntary. McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 465, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969). Because Rule 11 includes a harmless error provision, however, a violation of Rule 11 does not require that the plea be vacated and the defendant be given an opportunity for a new plea or a trial unless the error affects the defendant's substantial rights. Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(h) (providing that [a]ny variance from the procedures required by this rule which does not affect substantial rights shall be disregarded); United States v. Syal, 963 F.2d 900, 904 (6th Cir.1992) (noting that violations of Rule 11 are subject to a harmless error analysis). 13 At Lucas's guilty plea hearing, the district court informed him that the mandatory minimum sentence for the offenses to which he was pleading guilty was ten years, and that he faced a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Lucas contends that this statement was erroneous, and therefore violated Rule 11. To support his argument, Lucas relies on the Supreme Court's decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), where the Court held that [o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 490. 14 This court has applied Apprendi's holding to 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1), which determines the maximum and minimum penalties based on the quantity of drugs for which a defendant is accountable. United States v. Ramirez, 242 F.3d 348, 351-52 (6th Cir.2001) (holding that § 841(b)(1)'s prescribed mandatory minimum penalties, which are based in part upon the quantity of drugs, implicate Apprendi ); United States v. Page, 232 F.3d 536, 543 (6th Cir.2000) (vacating the defendant's sentence because the quantity of drugs that resulted in a higher maximum penalty was not submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt). 15 Lucas's argument fails, however, because the district court's statement regarding the mandatory minimum and the maximum sentences for the offenses to which Lucas was pleading guilty was not erroneous at the time it was made. When Lucas pled guilty, this court's decisions required the district court rather than the jury to determine the quantity of drugs for which a defendant was responsible under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). United States v. Jinadu, 98 F.3d 239, 247-48 (6th Cir.1996) (explaining that the determination of the quantity of drugs involved is not an element of the offense and that the sentencing judge, not the jury, must decide this issue). 16 Although Lucas's indictment did not specify a drug quantity, all parties knew that the maximum drug quantity for which Lucas might be held accountable was 595.8 grams. The penalty range for a violation of § 841(a)(1) involving 50 grams or more of crack cocaine is ten years to life imprisonment where no other sentence-enhancing factors exist. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A). As a result, the district court did not misstate the potential penalty that Lucas faced on the date that he entered his guilty plea in July of 1999. 17 Unlike cases where the district court can determine the accurate sentencing range by consulting the applicable statute, the district court in the present case could not have predicted that the Supreme Court would decide Apprendi as it did. Cf. United States v. Gigot, 147 F.3d 1193, 1198-99 (10th Cir.1998) (holding that the district court failed to comply with Rule 11 when it did not inform the defendant of the elements of the crime to which she was pleading guilty, and misinformed her about the maximum and minimum penalties for her offenses, even though the penalties were readily ascertainable in the statute). 18 This court has recognized that the Supreme Court had earlier announced the principle underlying the Apprendi rule in Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 119 S.Ct. 1215, 143 L.Ed.2d 311 (1999), United States v. Flowal, 234 F.3d 932, 936 (6th Cir.2000), but Jones's explicit holding was based on statutory construction. See Jones, 526 U.S. at 251-52, 119 S.Ct. 1215 (holding that the federal carjacking statute, as it existed when the defendant was indicted, established three separate offenses rather than a single offense with a choice of three maximum penalties, and recognizing that this construction avoided serious constitutional questions on which precedent is not dispositive). The Court's statement that under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the notice and jury trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment, any fact (other than prior conviction) that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be charged in an indictment, submitted to a jury, and proven beyond a reasonable doubt, id. at 243 n. 6, 119 S.Ct. 1215, was dictum in light of its resolution of the case on the basis of statutory construction. 19 Our conclusion that Rule 11(c) does not require a district court to predict and apply the holdings of the Supreme Court before they are announced is supported by the Court's own decision in Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970). In Brady, the Court rejected the petitioner's claim that his guilty plea was involuntary where, after he pled guilty to a federal kidnapping charge, the Supreme Court held that the statute's death penalty provision was unconstitutional. Id. at 747-48, 90 S.Ct. 1463. As the Court explained, 20 absent misrepresentation or other impermissible conduct by state agents, a voluntary plea of guilty intelligently made in the light of the then applicable law does not become vulnerable because later judicial decisions indicate that the plea rested on a faulty premise. A plea of guilty triggered by the expectations of a competently counseled defendant that the State will have a strong case against him is not subject to later attack because the defendant's lawyer correctly advised him with respect to the then existing law as to possible penalties but later pronouncements of the courts, as in this case, hold that the maximum penalty for the crime in question was less than was reasonably assumed at the time the plea was entered. 21 Id. at 757, 90 S.Ct. 1463 (citation omitted). 22 Although Brady involved a habeas corpus petition, whereas the present case is on direct appeal, this distinction does not alter the principles set forth above. The district court correctly advised Lucas of the penalties for his offenses according to the law at the time he pled guilty, and the record contains no indication that Lucas's plea was not made knowingly and voluntarily. We therefore conclude that no violation of Rule 11 occurred, and that Lucas's guilty plea was valid.