Court Opinion

ID: 9457816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:33:48.887534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:31.162025
License: Public Domain

ELY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I cannot accept the majority’s disposition of this appeal. My disagreement relates to only two of the claims on which Smith has undertaken to obtain an evidentiary hearing. The first is his allegation that he was deprived of the effective representation of counsel, and the second is that he was induced to plead guilty by the promise, ultimately unfulfilled, that the sentences would be concurrent, rather than consecutive.
Assuming that the allegations in respect to the two significant constitutional claims were imperfect, the District Court might, in the circumstances, have allowed Smith, a prisoner undertaking to represent himself, to amend his pleadings so as to endow them with the hy-pertechnical specificity which my Brothers would require. Now, it can be expected that Smith will file another petition, outlining, in even greater detail, the bases of his claims, and this will add yet another case to the docket of the District Court and ultimately, perhaps, to the burgeoning docket of this court.
It is not difficult to perceive the two principal contentions made by Smith, and, in fact, his allegation in support of one of them is quite specific. Smith alleged “. . .a concurrent sentence was promised by . [the] Assistant United States Attorney. . . .” Cf. Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971), wherein the Chief Justice, for the Court in unanimous agreement on this point, wrote:
“[A] constant factor [in determining whether a defendant received what he was reasonably due], is that when a plea rests in any significant degree on a promise or agreement of the prosecutor, so that it can be said to be part of the inducement or consideration, such promise must be fulfilled.”
404 U.S. at 262, 92 S.Ct. at 499, 30 L.Ed. 2d at 433. The promise of concurrent sentences would obviously be significantly inducing to an accused charged with two felonies and considering the advisability of pleading guilty to both. Thus, if Smith could prove that the alleged promise was made and then broken, he would be entitled to relief under the principles so recently set forth in Santobello.
I have no doubt that Smith can eventually frame his allegations so as to require that an evidentiary hearing be conducted. I would, therefore, if I could act alone, reverse the judgment, suggesting, at the same time, that the District Court appoint counsel to assist Smith in the amendment and presentation of his petition.