Court Opinion

ID: 9465364
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:44:37.893598+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:08.889135
License: Public Domain

JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I would affirm.
I agree with my brothers that the government must strictly abide its plea bargain agreements. It may not unburden itself of the task of presenting the case at trial by making an agreement and, having done so, violate its undertakings, directly or indirectly. See Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971).
Nothing in this record indicates such a transgression. It is not suggested that the prosecutor recommended a sentence. The record does show that the probation officer obtained background information for his judge. One government agent remarked upon the defendant’s previous record to defendant’s detriment. The prosecuting attorney’s report was favorable to the defendant.
The judge is entitled to as much information as the probation officer can gather to assist him in fixing an appropriate sentence. I doubt that an agreement to withhold information from the sentencing judge would be lawful. When a prosecutor agrees to make no sentencing recommendation, he must assume that the judge will have all relevant facts before him, and he does not undertake to hide away from the court pri- or to sentencing to the end that the judge will be “kept in the dark” as to defendant’s record, guilt, participation in the crime, etc.
There being nothing in the record to indicate that the prosecutor, contrary to his undertaking, sought directly or indirectly to recommend a sentence in this case, I conclude that the plea bargain was kept.