Court Opinion

ID: 9753643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:21:28.524672+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:39.740384
License: Public Domain

ADKINS, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I believe the better position under Maryland law, under federal law, and in light of prudential considerations is that Padilla v. Kentucky created a new rule, not applicable retroactively. In my view, Padilla should not apply to Petitioner, and he should not receive a new trial.
It is clear that Padilla created a new rule under the federal standard for retroactivity.1 In Teague v. Lane, the Supreme Court set forth the federal standard, holding that a rule is “new,” and thus not applicable retroactively, if “the result was not dictated by precedent existing at the time the defendant’s *494conviction became final.” 489 U.S. 288, 301, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 1070, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989). In Beard v. Banks, the Court refined the Teague standard, holding that a rule is new whenever “reasonable jurists could differ as to whether precedent compels [it].” 542 U.S. 406, 416 n. 5, 124 S.Ct. 2504, 2513, 159 L.Ed.2d 494 (2000). Thus, the Tenth Circuit recently held that Padilla created a new rule because “a reasonable jurist ... would not have considered Supreme Court precedent to compel [its result].” U.S. v. Chang Hong, — F.3d —, —, 2011 WL 3805763, at *5-7 (10th Cir.2011). The Seventh Circuit reached the same result, holding that Padilla created a new rule because one could not say that prior cases holding differently had been “unreasonable in their reading of existing Supreme Court precedent.” Chaidez v. U.S., 655 F.3d 684, 691-92 (7th Cir.2011).2 Because Padilla created a new rule under the federal standard, the majority must rely on Maryland’s unique standard for retroactivity, set forth in State v. Daughtry, 419 Md. 35, 77-81, 18 A.3d 60, 85-87 (2011), to hold that Padilla did not create a new rule, and thus is applicable retroactively to Petitioner.
The better position, however, is that Padilla creates a new rule under Maryland’s standard as well as the federal standard, because the rule it overturned was more reasonable and more widely followed than the rule overturned in Daughtry. In other words, Daughtry is distinguishable because Padilla overturned stronger and better-established precedents. Unlike the rule overturned in Daughtry, which was followed in “some trial courts” and “seemingly ... [mis]construed a prior case,” 419 Md. at 80, 18 A.3d at 79, the rule overturned in Padilla was followed in “every Federal Court of Appeals,” and *495provided a reasonable solution to a “uniquely difficult” question. Padilla v. Kentucky, — U.S. —, 180 S.Ct. 1473, 1482, 1491-92, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010).
Daughtry affirmed a judgment from the Court of Special Appeals holding that the defendant’s guilty plea was involuntary because “there was no other evidence (aside from the fact of representation) tending to show that the plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered.” 419 Md. at 80,18 A.3d at 87. On appeal before this Court, the State argued that the holding below, if affirmed, would create a new rule because it was “a significant departure from ... Priet,” a case3 sometimes cited as having created a presumption that guilty pleas are knowing and voluntary as long as the defendant is represented by counsel. Id. at 78-79, 18 A,3d at 86. We disagreed. Acknowledging that it “may well be that members of the bar and lower courts ... relied upon and employed the ... presumption in accepting or upholding guilty pleas,” we held:
“[Tjhat ‘some trial courts and members of the bar seemingly have [misjconstrued’ a prior case does not mean that a later decision, setting forth a proper interpretation, ‘comprise[s] a departure from the law applicable to criminal causes in Maryland.’ ” .... Because our decision today is consistent entirely with Rule 4-242(c), its predecessor, and attendant case law, we need not address the parties’ contentions vis á vis [retroactivity], and we declare that this opinion must be given full retrospective effect. (Citations omitted.)
Id. at 80-81, 18 A.3d at 87. Thus, the rule overturned in Daughtry was not widely accepted and was a mistaken interpretation of applicable precedent.
On the other hand, the rule overturned in Padilla was widely accepted and well reasoned. Padilla held that a criminal defense lawyer, to provide effective assistance under Strickland, “must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation.” 130 S.Ct. at 1486. This holding overturned the rule, widely followed in the lower courts, that a *496guilty plea is not invalid under Strickland solely because the defense attorney failed to inform the defendant of the risk of deportation.4 Id. at 1491 (Alito, J., concurring). As the Seventh Circuit explained in Chaidez, prior to Padilla “virtually all jurisdictions ... had held that defense lawyers ... need not explain collateral consequences, such as ... deportation.” 655 F.3d at 690 (citation omitted). Thus, Justice Alito’s concurring opinion in Padilla characterized the majority’s holding as a “dramatic departure from precedent” and a “major upheaval in Sixth Amendment law,” observing that “the Court’s view has been rejected by every Federal Court of Appeals to have considered the issue thus far.” 130 S.Ct. at 1488, 1491. Because Padilla overturned such a strong and widely followed precedent, the best position is that it created a new rule. Daughtry, therefore, is distinguishable.
Two additional considerations counsel against the retroactive application of Padilla. First, as the Supreme Court observed in Butler v. McKellar, “[T]he ‘new rule’ principle therefore validates reasonable, good-faith interpretations of existing precedents made by state courts even though they are shown to be contrary to later decisions.” 494 U.S. 407, 414, 110 S.Ct. 1212, 1217, 108 L.Ed.2d 347 (1990).5 I find this consideration persuasive. To avoid implying that practically all judges and practitioners have been unreasonable in their *497interpretation of Strickland, courts should recognize that Padilla created a new rule.6
Second, one of the reasons Teague created the dichotomy between new rules and old rules is that states are unduly burdened when new constitutional rules are applied retroactively. As the Court observed,
In many ways the [retroactive] application of new rules ... may be more intrusive than the enjoining of criminal prosecutions, for it continually forces the States to marshal resources in order to keep in prison defendants whose trials and appeals conformed to then-existing constitutional standards. Furthermore ... [sjtate courts are understandably frustrated when they faithfully apply existing constitutional law only to have a federal court discover ... new constitutional commands.
(Citations omitted.)
Teague, 489 U.S. at 310,109 S.Ct. at 1075.
I find this consideration persuasive as well. Petitioner’s guilty plea complied with then-existing constitutional standards under Strickland. As Justice Alito noted in Padilla, “every Federal Court of Appeals to have considered the issue” agreed that deportation was a collateral consequence, and that failing to advise a defendant of it did not invalidate a guilty plea. 130 S.Ct. at 1488, 1491. Thus, granting Petitioner a new trial when his plea conformed with a well-established and reasonable constitutional rule imposes an undue burden on the Circuit Court.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

. As the majority correctly observes, we are not bound by the federal standard, but it is persuasive. Maj. Op. at 480-81, 30 A.3d at 924-25, n. 8.

. The only federal circuit court to apply Padilla retroactively failed to address the Supreme Court’s later interpretations of the Teague standard. See U.S. v. Orocio, 645 F.3d 630 (3rd Cir.2011). Indeed, the only Supreme Court case cited in Orocio with respect to the Teague standard is Wright v. West, 505 U.S. 277, 291 n. 8, 112 S.Ct. 2482, 2490, 120 L.Ed.2d 225 (1992), which held that "a rule is 'new' for Teague purposes whenever its validity under existing precedents is subject to debate among ‘reasonable minds’ or among 'reasonable jurists' " (citations omitted).

. State v. Priet, 289 Md. 267, 424 A.2d 349 (1981).

. Of course, this was the rule in Maryland as well. Yoswick v. State, 347 Md. 228, 240, 700 A.2d 251, 257 (1997) (holding that a guilty plea is not invalid merely because the lawyer fails to advise the defendant of collateral consequences such as deportation). Although Md. Rule 4-242(e) required defense attorneys to advise their clients of "collateral consequences” of a guilty plea, including deportation, it explicitly provided that "the omission of advice concerning the collateral consequences of a plea does not itself mandate that the plea be declared invalid.” Maryland Rule 4—242(e). The committee note also provided that Md. Rule 4-242(e) "does not overrule Yoswick ...."

. Maryland law, too, recognizes that a holding is more likely a new rule when the precedent it overturns was widely accepted. See Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. Zenobia, 325 Md. 420, 471, 601 A.2d 633, 658 (1992) (holding that "two major considerations in determining whether a new holding is to be applied only prospectively are the purpose of the holding and the extent of reliance upon the overruled cases”).

. Again, this consideration distinguishes Padilla from Daughtry, which overturned lower-court precedent that had “[mis]construed a prior case.” 419 Md. at 80-81.