Court Opinion

ID: 9454812
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:59:52.350872+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:19.261286
License: Public Domain

ELY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. Since the sentencing judge accepted the plea of guilty without personally communicating any advice whatsoever to the accused, there was, as the majority recognizes, manifest failure to comply with the requirements of Rule 11, Fed.R.Crim.P. Notwithstanding, the majority affirms upon its conclusion that Macon did not, in his petition, allege that he was unaware, before he entered his plea, of all the possible consequences which might follow that plea. This approach, so narrowly technical, is an avenue which I cannot take, especially since, as the majority also recognizes, Macon would not have been required to prove the allegation had it been made. Heiden v. United States, 353 F.2d 53 (9th Cir. 1965). Moreover, I believe that the petition did, in effect, contain the allegation. It clearly alleged the court’s failure to comply with Rule 11. The thrust of other portions of the petition is that Macon, when he entered his plea, expected that he would be sentenced for an offense carrying a lesser punishment than that which was imposed. Macon is a layman, and he apparently prepared his petition without the assistance of a lawyer trained in the refined niceties of formal pleading. If the District Court believed, as does the majority, that the petition was technically deficient as to the allegation believed to be so crucial, it should have afforded Macon an opportunity to amend his petition before entering an order of dismissal. In Pembrook v. Wilson, 370 F.2d 37 (9th Cir. 1966), wherein the allegations of a petition for habeas corpus were, as the majority says of the allegations here, “conclusionary,” our court, through Judge Hamley, wrote:
“The proper course in this circumstance would be to grant leave to proceed in forma pauperis, but dismiss the application with leave to amend, pointing out the deficiency which requires amendment. * * * ”
Id. at 39 n. 4. See also Rule 15, Fed.R.Civ.P.; Blair v. California, 340 F.2d 741 (9th Cir. 1965); United States v. Derosier, 229 F.2d 599, 601 (3rd Cir. 1956); United States ex rel. Darcy v. Handy, 203 F.2d 407, 428-429 (3d Cir. 1953); Swepston v. United States, 227 F.Supp. 429 (W.D.Mo.1964); Hamby v. United States, 217 F.Supp. 318 (W.D.Mo.1963); Burleson v. United States, 205 F.Supp. 331 (W.D.Mo.1962). See generally Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 10 L.Ed.2d 148, 83 S.Ct. 1068 (1963); Evans v. United States, 387 F.2d 160 (3d Cir. 1967). The contrary approach, taken by the District Court in this ease and approved by the majority, will surely not effect a final solution of the problem which Macon’s claim presents. I have no doubt that Macon, however unlearned, will be able to supply the necessary allegation in his next petition.
I would reverse, with directions to vacate the challenged judgment of conviction and to afford to the appellant an opportunity, under appropriate safeguards, to replead to the charge made in the indictment.