Court Opinion

ID: 9489967
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:29:19.060065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:49.545349
License: Public Domain

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I concur with the majority that the district court improperly applied the fraud guidelines when sentencing Coscarelli and that he should have been exposed to a sentencing range of 121-151 months because of the money-laundering element of the conspiracy count. I must respectfully dissent, however, from that part of the opinion which sua sponte vacates Coscarelli’s guilty plea for a reason that was neither preserved below nor raised on appeal to this court. It is improper *995for this court to decide that a plea was not “knowing and voluntary’ when the defendant has never so alleged. It is also highly problematic for this court to scour the appellate record in search of errors that allegedly affront “higher justice” and then, without obtaining briefing from either party, to un-do a guilty plea and upset the parties’ expectations and volition. Finally, I am convinced that the majority’s interpretation of error here is incorrect, rendering even more capricious their decision to vacate the plea.
As far as I have found, it is unprecedented for a federal appellate court to investigate the adequacy of a Rule 11 plea colloquy on its own motion — much less vacate the plea— when the defendant never challenged the adequacy of his plea in any respect in either the trial court or the appellate court. Cf. United States v. Corbett, 742 F.2d 173, 178 n. 12 (5th Cir.1984) (“We hold only that where, as here, appellant challenges the validity of his plea and seeks to withdraw it, we should review the adequacy of the plea based on the Rule 11 transcript.” [emphasis added]); United States v. Adams, 634 F.2d 830, 836 (5th Cir. Unit A Jan.1981) (in an appeal where the defendant sought to enforce his plea bargain, this court could, on its own motion, review the plea colloquy for error).
This court has consistently refused to consider issues that were neither preserved below nor raised in the briefs or arguments before this court. See United States v. Johnson, 718 F.2d 1317, 1325 n. 23 (5th Cir.1983) (en banc) (we will not review an improper jury instruction that was neither raised in the trial court nor claimed to be error on appeal). If this court sets out — as the majority has done here — to review all plea colloquies on our own motion for reversible error, our workload will be intolerable, and one of the most significant restraints on this court’s exercise of appellate authority — confining review to issues properly preserved — will vanish. See United States v. Calverley, 37 F.3d 160, 162 (5th Cir.1994) (en banc) (the practice of this court to review errors that have been properly preserved is founded upon considerations of fairness to this court, to the parties, and of the public interest in bringing litigation to an end after a fair opportunity has been afforded to present all issues of law and fact), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 115 S.Ct. 1266, 131 L.Ed.2d 145 (1995).1
Even assuming that this court may consider the adequacy of the Rule 11 plea colloquy, the majority’s application of a harmless error analysis is incorrect. Errors not raised in the district court are to be reviewed by this court for plain error, not harmless error. See Fed. R. CRIM. P. 52(b); United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731-32, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 1776, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993); Calverley, 37 F.3d at 162. This is true even when the court, as here, chooses sua sponte to review a defendant’s Rule 11 pleading. Although Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(h) specifies that Rule 11 proceedings are subject to a harmless error review, certainly this rule presupposes that any alleged error has been complained about by the defendant at some point — either at trial or on appeal. This court has stated as much sitting en banc: a Rule 11 proceeding is reviewed for harmless error “when [the defendant] claims that the district court has failed to comply with Rule 11.” United States v. Johnson, 1 F.3d 296, 298 (5th Cir.1993) (en banc) (emphasis added).
Whether plain error or harmless error furnishes the appellate standard, however, any error which may have occurred is not, in my view, reversible. In order to withstand a plain error inquiry,, the error must, inter alia, affect substantial rights: “the affecting of substantial rights requires that the error *996be prejudicial; it must affect the outcome of the proceeding.” Calverley, 37 F.3d at 164. As I will show, it appears that Coscarelli had no intention of going to trial or asserting his innocence of these charges. Any error that occurred was thus not outcome-determinative. Moreover, “plain forfeited errors affecting substantial rights should be corrected on. appeal only if they ‘seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.’” Id. (quoting United States v. Atkinson, 297 U.S. 157, 160, 56 S.Ct. 391, 392, 80 L.Ed. 555 (1936)). I disagree with the majority that any error, much less a grievous plain error, occurred here.
Under á harmless error analysis, any error which may have occurred was not reversible. “To determine whether a Rule 11 error is harmless (ie., whether the error affects substantial rights), we focus on whether the defendant’s knowledge and comprehension of the full and correct information would have been likely to affect his willingness to plead guilty.” Johnson, 1 F.3d at 302. After a thorough review of the Rule 11 transcript and the sentencing hearing, I am persuaded that Coscarelli did understand the consequences of his plea. See id.
First, the majority states that “it is clear that Coscarelli did not know or understand that he was facing a substantially greater maximum sentence than the five year maximum.” The record does not support this contention. The majority quotes that part of the plea colloquy where the district court informs Coscarelli that he may be sentenced to up to five years for each count of the indictment:
The indictment consists of 11 counts, on each of the 11 counts to which you’ve indicated you wish to plead guilty the maximum possible penalty is imprisonment for up to five years and a fine of not more than $250,000, in addition, the government — in addition, the court may assess a special — will assess a special assessment of $50 per count....
(emphasis added). The district court’s language did not, as the majority concludes, suggest to Coscarelli that he would receive a maximum sentence of five years. Rather, he was informed that he may receive up to five years for each of the eleven counts of the indictment.
Second, the majority states that in response to being given this information from the court, “Coscarelli acknowledged that he understood the ramifications of his plea.” In fact, before acknowledging his assent, Cos-carelli inquired whether the special assessment would be $50 total or $50 for each count of the indictment. The court went on to explain that Coscarelli would be assessed $50 for each count' of the indictment. This is significant because surely if Coscarelli had any questions regarding the court’s language regarding the maximum penalty per count of the indictment, he would have spoken up at that point, as he did regarding the special assessment.
Third, during the plea colloquy the court further explained to Coscarelli:
Do you understand that I may not be able to determine that guideline sentence for you [sic] case until after a presentence report has been prepared by the probation department and you and the government have had an opportunity to review that report and challenge any fact reported and that the sentence imposed might be different than any estimate your attorney may have given you?
The Defendant: Yes.
The Court: Do you also understand that after it’s been determined what guidelines apply to your case that I have the authority in some instances to impose a sentence that’s greater or less than what is called for under the guidelines?
The Defendant: Yes, your honor.
Finally, at sentencing, in a statement to the court, Coscarelli indicated his willingness to plead guilty to the offenses charged:
I really feel bad about everything that’s happened. I got my son involved in this. I take responsibility for him on that. You know, bar the thing about getting the two points [referring to the lawyers’ discussions with the court regarding the calculation of his points under the guidelines]. I don’t care. I have to say this. I want to make it up to him, my mother, and hopefully society sometime.... [H]It’s funny *997in a way, I almost like to thank [the prosecution] for doing this. It stopped' a chain that was like an addiction and I couldn’t hardly stop myself.... [¶] I don’t blame anybody but me. I make no excuses;
In the face of Coscarelli’s penitence, there is no record evidence — nothing more than the majority’s speculation — undergirding their conclusion that if the district court had informed Cosearelli of the potentially longer sentence for one object of the conspiracy count, he would have been unwilling to plead guilty.
The majority relies on United States v. Watch, 7 F.3d 422 (5th Cir.1993), in concluding that the district court’s alleged erroneous instruction to Cosearelli on the maximum penalty was harmful. Watch is, however, inapposite. In Watch, the defendant appealed to this court complaining of a Rule 11 violation. See id. at 424. Cosearelli has not. Further, in Watch the sentencing court mi-sadvised the defendant regarding the mandatory minimum time to which he would be sentenced. See id. at 425-26. In the case at bar, Cosearelli was allegedly misadvised concerning his possible maximum sentence.2
In another similar case in which the sentencing court xnisadvised the defendant regarding the possible maximum sentence, this court found the error to be harmless. See United States v. Pierce, 5 F.3d 791, 794 (5th Cir.1993) (DeMoss, J.). As this court stated in Pierce:
[T]he fact that [the defendant’s] true “worst case scenario” [i.e. the maximum sentence that he could receive] was actually worse than he was informed would not have reasonably caused [the defendant] to doubt the wisdom of his plea. To the contrary, logic and reason would weigh this factor in favor of his decision to plead guilty: if [the defendant] was willing to plead guilty when facing what he believed was an 18 year maximum, would he not have been just as willing if [he had] known that the maximum was 38 years?
Id. See also Fed. R. CRIM. P. 11(h) Advisory Committee’s Note (citing United States v. Peters, No. 77-1700, 588 F.2d 1353 (4th Cir., Dec.22, 1978) (unpublished), a case in which the defendant was not correctly informed of the maximum possible sentence, as illustrative of Rule 11(h) harmless error).
While I firmly believe that Cosearelli was not misinformed of his possible maximum sentence, I also believe that the record shows that any error concerning Coscarelli’s possible maximum sentence did not affect his decision to plead guilty. By choosing to vacate Coscarelli’s guilty plea without even as much as a hint from Cosearelli regarding any dissatisfaction with his plea, and without allowing the government a fair opportunity to respond, the majority has grossly interfered with the plea bargain process. A guilty plea pursuant to a plea agreement is a bargain between the government and the defendant. Rule 11 authorizes neither the trial court nor this court to reshape that bargain. Nevertheless, that is the effect of the majority’s action in vacating Coscarelli’s plea. I respectfully dissent.

. None of the cases cited by the majority to support sua sponte review of the plea colloquy in this case is applicable. Two of those cases did not concern a review of Rule 11 proceedings, and the third is procedurally unique. See Silber v. United States, 370 U.S. 717, 717, 82 S.Ct. 1287, 1288, 8 L.Ed.2d 798 (1962) (defendant was convicted after a trial and there was no Rule 11 hearing; "the trial court squarely considered and decided the issue” that the Court reviewed on its own motion); United States v. Pineda-Ortuno, 952 F.2d 98, 105 (5th Cir.) (defendants appealed their convictions after a trial on the merits; this court sua sponte reviewed a double jeopardy issue), cert. denied, 504 U.S. 928, 112 S.Ct. 1990, 118 L.Ed.2d 587 (1992); United States v. Adams, 634 F.2d 830, 836-37 (5th Cir. Unit A Jan.1981) (after being convicted at trial, defendant appealed seeking enforcement of an alleged plea agreement and this court sua sponte reviewed the district court's unauthorized participation in the plea bargain discussions).

. United States v. Guerra, 94 F.3d 989 (5th Cir.1996), a habeas appeal cited by the majority, is also distinguishable from the case at bar. In Guerra, the petitioner vigorously pursued his claim that he did not knowingly, voluntarily plead guilty because he was misinformed that an extraordinarily high potential sentence could be imposed.