Court Opinion

ID: 9461799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:25:01.338326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:16.360343
License: Public Domain

JOHN W. PECK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
With all due respect, I feel required to dissent on the ground that under the circumstances reflected by the record, as a matter of logic as well as of law, no purported finding of fact inconsistent with the transcript can have validity. In my view, a reading of the plain language contained in the appendix to the majority opinion clearly demonstrates its inconsistency with the district judge’s finding that the defendant “[understood] the nature and consequences of his plea of guilty.” This illiterate defendant’s “yes” and “no” responses to the court’s series of leading questions lack weight if not relevance and are not entitled to consideration in view of the court’s misstatement of the offense as to which defendant was entering a plea, which also vitiated the opinion testimony offered by the prosecutor and defense counsel. Plea bargaining is in my opinion at best a suspect procedure and should not be rendered more hazardous by permitting a sentencing procedure transcript to be modified on the basis of parol evidence.