Court Opinion

ID: 9468143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:06:03.923172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:42.636693
License: Public Domain

MANSFIELD, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. In my view the proper disposition of this appeal is to remand the case for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Johnson pleaded guilty under the mistaken impression that he faced a maximum sentence of 7 years and, if so, whether he would have pleaded not guilty if he realized that he in fact faced a maximum of 15 years. See Williams v. Smith, 591 F.2d 169 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 920, 99 S.Ct. 2845, 61 L.Ed.2d 289 (1979);1 Kelleher v. Henderson, 531 F.2d 78 (2d Cir. 1976); Jones v. United States, 440 F.2d 466 (2d Cir. 1971).
The issue is not resolved by Johnson’s admission that he did not receive any “promises as to a definite or specified period of imprisonment.” He may still have pleaded guilty in the erroneous belief, based on misinformation from his attorney, that *754while he could not be assured of a specific sentence his maximum exposure under the law was 7 years when in fact it was 15 years. This possibility is supported by the sentencing judge’s failure to advise him of the maximum penalty and by the affidavit of his co-defendant Coaye.
Nor can Johnson’s claim be dismissed on the grounds (1) that the state prosecutor stated that the law provided for “mandatory time” upon his guilty plea, and (2) that a co-defendant had been sentenced to 15 years. As far as Johnson was concerned the “mandatory time” was a maximum of 7 years. Whether Johnson understood that his co-defendant had pleaded to the same felony classification and, if so, believed he might be subject to a higher maximum penalty as a second felony offender, N.Y. Penal Law § 70.06, are questions of fact to be resolved at a hearing.
Although Johnson’s petition does not expressly allege that he would not have pleaded guilty if he had known that the maximum sentence he faced was 15 years rather than 7 years, that clearly is its import and in my view it must as a pro se petition be so construed. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972); Haymes v. Montanye, 547 F.2d 188, 190 (2d Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 967, 97 S.Ct. 2925, 53 L.Ed.2d 1063 (1977); Morgan v. Montanye, 516 F.2d 1367, 1370 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 973, 96 S.Ct. 1476, 47 L.Ed.2d 743 (1976). We and other circuits have steadfastly adhered to the view that pro se habeas petitions must be construed liberally in the petitioner’s favor. Jennings v. Casscles, 424 F.Supp. 280, 283 (E.D.N.Y.1976), aff’d, 568 F.2d 229 (2d Cir. 1977); United States ex rel. Buford v. Henderson, 524 F.2d 147,152 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 923, 96 S.Ct. 1133, 47 L.Ed.2d 332 (1976); United States ex rel. Johnson v. Chairman of New York Board of Parole, 500 F.2d 925, 926 (2d Cir.), vacated on other grounds, 419 U.S. 1015, 95 S.Ct. 488, 42 L.Ed.2d 289 (1974); White v. Wyrick, 530 F.2d 818 (8th Cir. 1976); McCloud v. Wainwright, 508 F.2d 853, 854 n.2 (5th Cir. 1975); West v. Louisiana, 478 F.2d 1026, 1030 (5th Cir. 1973). Here it would be the height of formalism to insist that the petition be dismissed because of failure to express what is clearly implied. The present case is therefore governed by our decision in United States ex rel. Leeson v. Damon, 496 F.2d 718 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 954, 95 S.Ct. 215, 42 L.Ed.2d 172 (1974), where we reversed the dismissal of a state prisoner’s habeas petition alleging that the petitioner had pleaded guilty in a mistaken belief as to the maximum sentence he would face, based on erroneous information received from his attorney.
For these reasons I would remand the case for an evidentiary hearing.2

. Although I agree that a state court’s failure to advise a defendant of the maximum sentence he faces upon pleading guilty would not, standing alone, raise a constitutional issue, our decision in Williams cannot be distinguished, as the majority attempts to do, on the ground that we there upheld a guilty plea under circumstances less favorable to the defendant than in the present case. In Williams the federal district court held an evidentiary hearing, followed by a finding that the defendant would nevertheless have pleaded guilty had he been correctly advised as to the maximum penalty. No such hearing was,held here.

. In view of the majority’s decision, little purpose would be served by a discussion of the exhaustion issue other than to voice my doubts as to the holding that state remedies were exhausted. Normally habeas relief will lie only upon a clear showing that the federal constitutional issue was considered on the merits. United States ex rel. Cuomo v. Fay, 257 F.2d 438, 442 (2d Cir. 1958), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 935, 79 S.Ct. 325, 3 L.Ed.2d 307 (1959). Although Johnson tried to raise on his direct state court appeal the constitutional issue presented here, the Appellate Division did not have the facts needed to dispose of the issue since the essential facts are not in the state court record other than the court’s failure to advise Johnson of the maximum penalty. Its affirmance did not, therefore, represent an adverse ruling on the merits, see N.Y.Crim.Proc.Law § 440.10(2); Gruttola v. Hammock, 639 F.2d 922, 929 (2d Cir. 1981), even though the Appellate Division was not precluded from remanding the case to the trial court for a hearing on the constitutional issue, People v. Seaton, 19 N.Y.2d 404, 280 N.Y.S.2d 370, 227 N.E.2d 294 (1967), and there was no procedural default calling for application of Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977).