Court Opinion

ID: 9449702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:19:47.829653+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:56.783331
License: Public Domain

WASHINGTON, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result).
I agree that leave to withdraw the plea of guilty was properly denied. As the court’s opinion points out, even if the defendant had mistakenly believed he would be eligible for parole, and pleaded guilty on the basis of that belief, he was not prejudiced thereby. He pleaded guilty with the knowledge that he might possibly be sentenced to forty years, and this period, even with normal parole, would exceed the eight years he did receive.
Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure places the trial judge under a duty to determine whether the defendant understands the “nature of the charge.” In a particular case, this might well include an understanding of the consequences of a guilty plea. Realistically, I think, eligibility or ineligibility for parole is a “consequence” of a plea of guilty. Certainly the plea of guilty produced the sentence, and the sentence precluded the possibility of parole because of a prior legislative enactment. If parole (“legis*442lative grace”) is the normal practice,1 and ineligibility for parole very rare, then pleading guilty because of ignorance of the fact that “legislative grace” had been withheld by special statute might well produce manifest injustice, if the reliance proved to be prejudicial. It would be prejudicial if the defendant received a sentence substantially greater than the maximum he might reasonably have expected, given the possibility of parole.
Here, I do not think “manifest injustice” resulted. But in another case it might have. In any event, I think it would be good practice for the District Court, in all narcotics cases, to warn defendants pleading guilty that parole and probation will not be available to them.

. In most types of cases, of course, release on parole is mandatory after certain conditions have been met. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 4161, 4162, 4163. These sections do not on their face disclose that they are not applicable to narcotics offenders.