Court Opinion

ID: 9599728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:21:07.573253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:46.658900
License: Public Domain

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge,
Dissenting Opinion, Concurring in the Judgment of the Court, in which Judge McKEE joins.
In reviewing Judge Hardiman’s opinion, it is important to note: (1) that Judge Hardiman never denies that Boyd’s counsel did not inform Boyd of the Commonwealth’s plea offer before Boyd pled guilty; (2) that Judge Hardiman never denies that counsel has an obligation to directly inform a defendant of a proffered plea agreement; (3) that Judge Hardiman never flatly states that failure to advise a client of a plea offer is ineffective assistance of counsel; (4) that there is nothing in the record to support the state court’s assumption (and it is nothing short of an assumption) that Boyd “knew about the initial plea offer yet decided to ‘take his chances with the discretion of the court’ ”; and (5) that the majority of the en banc court has not adopted nor endorsed Judge Hardiman’s view of the effect of Tollett and Mabry.
The principal issue raised on this appeal is whether, as the District Court found, trial counsel for the defendant Christopher Boyd was ineffective when he failed to communicate directly to Boyd a plea offer of 4 to 10 years (or 4 to 8 years) made by the Commonwealth. The Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed by Boyd, who was sentenced to 8 to 22 years, alleged that “[t]he conviction was obtained and sentence imposed in violation of the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel at all critical stages.... The Petitioner alleges that trial counsel failed to communicate a favorable plea agreement before rejecting it; that trial counsel failed to discuss a favorable plea agreement before rejecting it. The Petitioner alleges he would have accepted the 4-8 year plea had it been presented to him for consideration before the lawyer rejected it.” Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 at 3, Boyd v. Warden, SCI Waymart, No. 06-0491 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 1, 2006).
The Magistrate Judge to whom the District Court referred the Petition for Habeas Corpus found, after an evidentiary hearing, that trial counsel “did in fact reject the Commonwealth’s plea offer without the prior consent of Petitioner,” App. at 22 (emphasis in original), although the Magistrate Judge recommended denial of the Petition. The District Court, in ruling on the Petition for Habeas Corpus, agreed, holding, based on undisputed facts: “This Court finds that trial counsel did not communicate the plea offer to Petitioner before rejecting the plea and thus failed to act as ‘counsel’ as guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment.” App. at 11.
The Commonwealth appealed to this court and listed as one of the three issues presented: “Whether plea counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to convey the original plea offer directly to Boyd.... ” Appellants’ Br. at 2. In its Supplemental Brief filed at our direction after we granted en banc hearing, the Commonwealth listed as one of the issues: “[i]f trial counsel communicated the plea offer to Boyd not directly, but only through Boyd’s mother, would this in itself amount to ineffective assistance of counsel?” Supp. Br. for Appellants at 31. Judge Hardiman never answers this question. To reach the answer, we must review the proceedings that have landed a young man in prison for the last seven years.
Judge Hardiman’s opinion concedes that “the extensive briefing and oral argument presented to the Court en banc focused entirely on the substantive issue [i.e., whether Sciolla, Boyd’s trial counsel, was *341ineffective].” Hardiman Op. at 367.12 Nonetheless, Judge Hardiman’s opinion concludes that “the adequacy of Sciolla’s representation with respect to the Commonwealth’s initial guilty plea offer is immaterial,” Hardiman Op. at 371, and, in so concluding substantially curtails the scope and effect of Strickland.
I.
Background
A. The Original Offense
Judge Hardiman’s opinion accurately describes the facts relating to the commission of the offense. Boyd did indeed commit a grievous assault on Jones, and it cannot be excused or mitigated by the fact that, as Boyd later told the police, Jones' threatened that if Boyd did not pay the bet, Jones would kill Boyd’s parents. App. at 167. There is no question that Boyd was appropriately charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, and related offenses. It is the proceedings thereafter that are at the heart of the issue before us.
B. The Guilty Plea
Boyd’s parents retained attorney Guy Sciolla to represent Boyd. At all relevant times Boyd was an adult and was never held to be mentally incompetent. The Commonwealth does not dispute that there was never an issue regarding competency. The Assistant District Attorney (“ADA”) assigned to the case extended a plea offer to Sciolla, which called for a term of imprisonment of four to eight (or four to ten) years. Sciolla rejected the offer, telling the ADA that it was “unacceptable.” App. at 40. After rejecting the offer, Sciolla called Mrs. Boyd (Boyd’s mother), told her about the plea offer, and stated that he had already rejected the offer.13 When asked at the hearing before the Magistrate Judge whether he had already rejected the plea bargain offer prior to the conversation with Mrs. Boyd, Sciolla testified, “I had.” App. at 40; see also App. at 35.
It is undisputed that Sciolla did not communicate the offer directly to Boyd. App. at 35.14 Judge Hardiman states that “the state court found that Sciolla informed Boyd of the initial plea offer and Boyd chose not to accept it.” Hardiman Op. at 378. He never acknowledges that the state court was wrong-and for Boyd disastrously wrong. When asked under oath by Boyd’s federal habeas counsel if Sciolla ever communicated the plea offer directly to defendant Boyd, Sciolla said, “[n]o.” App. at 38.15 When Sciolla was asked *342under oath by the Magistrate Judge whether he “ever discuss [ed] the four to eight [year plea offer] with [Boyd]?,” Sciolla said that he did not; he only told Mrs. Boyd about the offer. App. at 46.16 Boyd *343then testified under oath that Sciolla at no time discussed with him directly and personally that the Commonwealth had made an offer of four to eight (or four to ten) years. App. at 60.
There is no support in the record for the Commonwealth’s statement that “[t]he offer was discussed with Boyd directly at several points later in the proceedings.” Appellants’ Br. at 7. The only citation to the record that bears on this statement is the colloquy referred to in footnote 4.
In addition, Sciolla did not discuss with Boyd the statutory maximum sentence that he could receive. Sciolla did not discuss with Boyd or the Boyd family the Pennsylvania Sentencing Guidelines, including possible sentencing enhancements and aggravating factors. He never told Boyd that he could receive a sentence as high as twenty-five years imprisonment, which was the statutory maximum. Sciolla did not counsel Boyd about the plea bargain offer, statutory maximum penalty, sentencing guidelines, and how those factors should impact Boyd’s decision whether to accept the plea bargain, enter an open plea, or go to trial. In fact, what Sciolla did tell Boyd was that he could receive a sentence of four to eight years imprisonment. Sciolla did not tell Boyd that he could get more than four to eight years imprisonment. Sciolla also testified that he is “not even sure [Boyd] did” participate in the plea decision, but to the extent that Boyd did participate, the only information he had was that he could get four to eight years imprisonment. App. at 46.
The Commonwealth states the plea agreement remained open, a statement which it has not supported by any written communication by it nor by any affidavit by the prosecutor.17 Sciolla testified that he did not know if it was still an open offer after he had rejected it. Judge Hardiman’s opinion states there is a dispute regarding whether the offer remained open after Sciolla rejected it. Hardiman Op. at 365 n. 28. Even if the Commonwealth had been willing to re-extend the offer after Sciolla rejected it but before the guilty plea hearing, Boyd did not know it because Sciolla never told him and there was no mention of an outstanding offer at the guilty plea hearing or sentencing. The reason it is irrelevant whether the offer was still technically open is because it was never discussed with Boyd. The Commonwealth does not argue otherwise.
On October 29, 2001, following Seiolla’s advice, Boyd entered an open guilty plea to aggravated assault and possession of an instrument of crime. The Commonwealth agreed to enter a nolle prosequi to the other charged offenses. At the plea colloquy, the trial court asked Boyd if he had a chance to talk to Sciolla about whether he wanted to plead guilty, and Boyd said that he had. The court did not tell Boyd, as it likely had no reason to know, that the Commonwealth had made a plea offer to Boyd, nor did it comment on whether any such offer was still open. Rather, the court informed Boyd that “[tjhere is no *344plea agreement in this case.... ” App. at 159. The court informed Boyd that the statutory maximum sentence was twenty-five years. The court did not inform Boyd before the guilty plea what the sentencing guidelines prescribed for his charged offenses, nor did the court explain the applicability of aggravating circumstances to Boyd’s case. The court never asked Boyd whether Sciolla had explained to him the potential statutory maximum sentence, the sentencing guidelines, or the concept of aggravating circumstances. Likewise, the court never asked Sciolla whether he had counseled Boyd in those respects. Sciolla testified that even though Boyd walked through the plea colloquy, he did not seem to fully grasp the seriousness of the potential sentence. App. at 37.
C. Sentencing
The trial court applied the aggravated sentencing guideline range (applicable when an offense involved the use of a deadly weapon, in this case a baseball bat). The court sentenced Boyd to a sentence of 84-240 months imprisonment on the assault charge and 12-24 months on the weapon possession charge, to be served consecutively. The resulting sentence was 96-264 months, or eight to twenty-two years imprisonment. This must be compared to the 48-96 [or 48-120 months] months sentence had the plea offer been accepted.
II.
Procedural History
Boyd timely filed a direct appeal in the Pennsylvania Superior Court, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Boyd was not represented by Sciolla on that appeal. In the direct appeal to the Superior Court, Boyd attached an affidavit to appellate counsel’s brief, in which he stated: “[Sciolla] did not discuss the offer directly with me on that date or at any other time.” App. at 116, ¶ 3.18 The brief also raised arguments regarding Sciolla’s failure to tell Boyd about the sentencing guidelines and statutory maximum, as well as his failure to counsel Boyd in any meaningful way about what his options were with respect to the guilty plea. App. at 113 (arguing that a hearing was necessary to determine “why [Sciolla] elected not to discuss [Boyd’s] potential sentence under the Guidelines, and why trial counsel for no apparent rational reason chose to advise [Boyd] not to take the D.A.’s offer *345that was the best chance he had at reduced jail time.”).
In an opinion dated November 18, 2002, on Boyd’s direct appeal, the Superior Comb affirmed Boyd’s judgment of sentence. Although the Superior Court acknowledged the existence of Boyd’s affidavit that was attached to Boyd’s appellate brief, it did not refer to the portion of Boyd’s affidavit quoted above. The Court found that Sciolla communicated the plea offer to Boyd and “fully informed [Boyd] about the availability of the original plea offer.” App. at 85. This erroneous statement misinterprets or misstates the record.
In his brief to the Superior Court, Boyd had cited Commonwealth v. Napper, 254 Pa.Super. 54, 385 A.2d 521 (1978), in support of his claim for ineffective assistance of counsel. Napper had been convicted of two counts of aggravated robbery and sentenced to two consecutive terms of five to twenty years imprisonment. The trial court denied Napper’s petition for post-conviction relief that was based upon counsel’s ineffectiveness in failing to fully advise Napper of the availability of a plea bargain offer. The Superior Court reversed, reasoning that counsel had failed “to make clear [to his client] ‘the risks, hazards or prospects of the ease.’ ” Id. at 524.
In its opinion on Boyd’s direct appeal, the Superior Court recognized that in Napper, counsel “all but admitted that he had been ineffective in failing to advise [Napper] fully on the availability of a plea bargain____” App. at 85. The Court sought to distinguish Napper by the statement, amazing under the circumstances, that Boyd’s “counsel informed him of the existence of the first plea bargain and the recommended sentence.” App. at 85. That conclusion was patently erroneous in light of Boyd’s affidavit stating that counsel never informed him directly of the plea bargain offer and in light of the legal precedent that the Superior Court cited in the very decision denying Boyd’s claim. Instead, the Superior Court concluded that Sciolla was not ineffective, and that Boyd’s claims were “without arguable merit.” App. at 88. Boyd appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which denied allocatur on February 17, 2004.
On October 19, 2004, Boyd filed for relief under Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 9541, claiming that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to consult with Boyd about the Commonwealth’s plea offer. The Court of Common Pleas (the PCRA court) dismissed the petition on February 7, 2005.
The court rejected Boyd’s claim that “guilty plea counsel was ineffective for advising defendant to reject a negotiated plea offer of four to eight years in light of the seriousness of the crimes charged” and that “appellate counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to make the foregoing argument on direct appeal.” App. at 76. The PCRA court concluded that this argument had previously been litigated because, on direct appeal, the Superior Comb held that Boyd’s guilty plea was entered knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. App. at 76.19 The PCRA court then stated that, assuming arguendo that the claim had not been previously litigated, the claim was without merit because there is no absolute right to withdraw a plea. The court stated that “[t]o withdraw a plea after sentencing, a defendant must make a showing of prejudice amounting to mani*346fest injustice[ ] ... [which] would involve a plea which was entered into involuntarily, unknowingly, or unintelligently.” App. at 77 (citations omitted). Significantly, even the alternative holding of the PCRA court does not discuss Boyd’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel nor the prejudice that resulted therefrom.
On November 23, 2005, the Superior Court affirmed the denial of the PCRA petition. The Superior Court determined that Boyd’s claim was unreviewable based upon Pennsylvania’s “previous litigation rule” because Boyd had already raised the issue on direct appeal. The Superior Court’s opinion on appeal from the PCRA court’s dismissal of Boyd’s PCRA petition never discussed the merits of Boyd’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim and, obviously, never discussed whether there was any prejudice resulting therefrom. It follows that the only state court opinion of relevance for purposes of AEDPA is the Superior Court opinion of November 18, 2002, an opinion, as noted above, that was clearly based on “an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding,” and therefore not entitled to the deference required by AEDPA. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2).
Boyd turned to the federal court, having exhausted his state court options. He filed a petition for habeas corpus, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The District Court referred the case to the Magistrate Judge who held the first, and only, evidentiary hearing on Boyd’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The Magistrate Judge heard the testimony of Boyd, Sciolla, and his direct appeal counsel. Because of its importance to the issue on appeal, I repeat here the Magistrate Judge’s finding of fact: “I do find that Sciolla did in fact reject the Commonwealth’s plea offer without the prior consent of Petitioner____” App. at 22 (emphasis in original). The Magistrate Judge concluded that Boyd’s claim was not procedurally defaulted, but he ultimately recommended denying the petition on the merits.
The District Court did not adopt the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation although the District Court also made the same relevant factual finding from the undisputed facts on the record that “trial counsel did not communicate the plea offer to Petitioner before rejecting the plea.” Boyd v. Nish, No. 06-0491, 2007 WL 403884, at *4 (E.D.Pa. Jan. 31, 2007). In addition to agreeing that Boyd’s claim was not procedurally defaulted because, under the facts of this case, the previous litigation doctrine is not a state rule of procedure, id. at *3, the District Court reviewed Boyd’s claims de novo. It did so because the state courts “failed to accurately construe” Boyd’s claims and did not cite “relevant federal precedent.” Id. at *2. The District Court concluded that trial counsel’s failure to communicate the Commonwealth’s plea offer to Boyd constituted a “ ‘gross deviation from accepted professional standards,’ ” and thus constituted failure to act as counsel under the Sixth Amendment. Id. at *4 (citing United States ex rel. Caruso v. Zelinsky, 689 F.2d 435, 438 (3d Cir.1982)). The Court also concluded that Boyd had demonstrated prejudice because he testified he would have accepted the Commonwealth’s plea offer, whereas the sentence he received was significantly greater than the plea offer terms. Id. at *5.
The District Court entered an order conditionally granting Boyd’s petition for habeas corpus on January 31, 2007. Nonetheless, Boyd is currently serving a sentence of eight to twenty-two years imprisonment in a state correctional facility.20 *347He has already served more than seven years.
III.
Discussion
A. The Guilty Plea
Judge Hardiman’s opinion would decide this case primarily on the premise that Boyd has conceded his entire claim of ineffective assistance of counsel because he agreed at sentencing that his guilty plea was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent, Hardiman Op. at 372-73, and has never receded from that position. Quoting from Mabry v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 504, 508, 104 S.Ct. 2543, 81 L.Ed.2d 437 (1984), Judge Hardiman’s opinion states: “It is well settled that a voluntary and intelligent plea of guilty made by an accused person, who has been advised by competent counsel, may not be collaterally attacked.” Hardiman Op. at 372 (emphasis added). Of course, the issue in this case is Boyd’s claim that he was not advised by competent counsel. Furthermore, in neither Mabry nor Tollett was there any allegation made that counsel had performed in an ineffective manner.
In Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 93 S.Ct. 1602, 36 L.Ed.2d 235 (1973), a state prisoner who had pled guilty to murder twenty-five years earlier sought a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the grand jury that indicted him excluded African Americans, an exclusion that had already been declared unconstitutional. Id. at 259, 261, 93 S.Ct. 1602. Instead of affirming the decision of the lower courts directing Tollett’s release, the Court remanded, holding that “respondent must not only establish the unconstitutional discrimination in selection of grand jurors, he must also establish that his attorney’s advice to plead guilty without having made inquiry into the composition of the grand jury rendered that advice outside the ‘range of competence demanded of attorneys.’ ” Id. at 268, 93 S.Ct. 1602.
Tollett is irrelevant to the issue before us. Tollett’s challenge to his guilty plea was directed to the state’s right to convict a defendant who was indicted by an unconstitutionally selected grand jury. If Tollett’s challenge was successful, as it was in the Court of Appeals, he would have been entitled to release and a new trial following his indictment by a properly constituted grand jury. That was the relief directed by the Sixth Circuit, see Henderson v. Tollett, 459 F.2d 237, 243 (6th Cir.1972), and which the Supreme Court modified by remanding for further findings.
That is a far cry from what Boyd has been contending and what he seeks. Boyd does not claim he should be exculpated because of some constitutional violation by the state. We have seen such cases when appellants or petitioners allege a Miranda violation, a Brady violation, or a Bruton violation. In contrast, Boyd admits that he committed the assault for which he was convicted. He does not argue that his conviction should be overturned because of an antecedent constitutional violation. His current counsel forthrightly conceded before this court that Boyd was guilty, and knowingly and voluntarily pleaded guilty to the assault. His claim goes not to his guilty plea but to his sentence.
*348Boyd does not challenge his factual guilt. He does not wish to withdraw his guilty plea and stand trial; he seeks the more favorable sentence contained in the initial plea offer. Because Boyd does not contest his guilt, but only his sentence, his guilty plea does not render irrelevant — and thus does not bar — his claim.
In a case subsequent to Tollett, the Supreme Court stated that “[n]either Tollett v. Henderson, nor our earlier cases on which it relied, stand for the proposition that [valid] counseled guilty pleas inevitably ‘waive’ all antecedent constitutional violations .... [I]n Tollett we emphasized that waiver was not the basic ingredient of this line of cases.” Menna v. New York, 423 U.S. 61, 63 n. 2, 96 S.Ct. 241, 46 L.Ed.2d 195 (1975) (per curiam) (internal citations omitted). Instead, “[t]he point of these cases is that a counseled plea of guilty is an admission of factual guilt so reliable that, when voluntary and intelligent, it quite validly removes the issue of factual guilt from the case.” Id. (second emphasis added). The Supreme Court’s own words are a more effective response to the reliance on Tollett in Judge Hardiman’s opinion than any I could devise.
Must a defendant lie about his guilt in order that he may raise the issue that his counsel was ineffective in failing to advise him of the prosecutor’s proposed plea agreement?
In contrast, Mabry did involve a challenge to the defendant’s sentence imposed after a plea bargain. 467 U.S. at 505-06, 104 S.Ct. 2543. In Mabry, defendant/respondent sought habeas corpus to collaterally attack a second plea bargain on the ground that it was unfair for the prosecutor to have withdrawn a more favorable plea bargain. The Supreme Court rejected that argument. The critical distinction between Boyd’s case and Mabry’s, and which is not noted by Judge Hardiman, is that in Mabry, the “[Respondent [did] not challenge the District Court’s finding that he pleaded guilty with the advice of competent counsel and with full awareness of the consequences.” Id. at 510, 104 S.Ct. 2543. Whatever may be the similarities in the facts between this case and Mabry, these factual similarities are irrelevant as the respondent in Mabry, unlike Boyd, chose not to contest the conduct of his attorney.
Judge Hardiman’s opinion is so focused on the seemingly talismanic properties of the phrase “knowing, intelligent, and voluntary” that it is unable to see the additional requirement of competent counsel in Tollett, or that different iterations of the samé test have been used by the Supreme Court. In Tollett itself, Chief Justice Rehnquist (then Justice Rehnquist) quoted from the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970), where the Court stated that in reviewing claims of ineffectiveness of counsel, the focus is “ ‘not on whether a court would retrospectively consider counsel’s advice to be right or wrong, but on whether that advice was within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal eases.’ ” Tollett, 411 U.S. at 264, 93 S.Ct. 1602 (quoting McMann, 397 U.S. at 771, 90 S.Ct. 1441). See also Tollett, 411 U.S. at 267, 93 S.Ct. 1602 (“When a criminal defendant has solemnly admitted in open court that he is in fact guilty of the offense with which he is charged, he may not thereafter raise independent claims relating to the deprivation of constitutional rights that occurred prior to the entry of the guilty plea. He may only attack the voluntary and intelligent character of the guilty plea by showing that the advice he received from counsel was not within the standards set forth in McMann.”).
The requirement of competent counsel, not surprisingly, is widely reiterated in *349opinions of the various courts of appeals. See, e.g., Acha v. United States, 910 F.2d 28, 30 (1st Cir.1990) (“Moreover, a guilty plea does not preclude a defendant from raising a claim that ineffective assistance of counsel rendered the guilty plea itself unintelligent and invalid.”) (citations omitted); United States v. Arteca, 411 F.3d 315, 320 (2d Cir.2005) (“Ineffective assistance of counsel during plea negotiations can invalidate a guilty plea and make granting withdrawal appropriate, to the extent that the counsel’s deficient performance undermines the voluntary and intelligent nature of defendant’s decision to plead guilty.”) (citations omitted); Hammond v. United States, 528 F.2d 15, 18 (4th Cir.1975) (“If counsel was ineffective, it follows that Hammond’s pleas were involuntary. The Brady trilogy ... makes it perfectly plain that the sine qua non to a voluntary plea of guilty is the assistance of counsel within the range of competence required of attorneys representing defendants in criminal cases.”) (quotations and citations omitted); United States v. Glinsey, 209 F.3d 386, 392 (5th Cir.2000) (“A voluntary guilty plea waives all nonjurisdictional defects in the proceedings against the defendant. This includes claims of ineffective assistance of counsel except insofar as the ineffectiveness is alleged to have rendered the guilty plea involuntary.”) (citation omitted); United States v. Brown, 870 F.2d 1354, 1359 (7th Cir.1989) (“Brown does not claim that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, which would be a valid basis for claiming that his guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary.”) (citation omitted); Thomas v. Lockhart, 738 F.2d 304, 306 (8th Cir.1984) (“We agree with the District Court that Thomas did not receive effective assistance of counsel; consequently he did not make a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent guilty plea.”); Langford v. Day, 110 F.3d 1380, 1386 (9th Cir.1996) (“The fact that overshadows this case is that Langford strongly and repeatedly insisted on pleading guilty and seeking the death penalty. That fact does not ... mean that Langford loses his right to effective assistance of counsel; his plea must be not only voluntary but intelligent, and counsel’s advice enters into the determination of intelligence. Counsel’s advice must be within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases.”) (quotation and citation omitted); Maldonado v. Winans, 728 F.2d 438, 439 (10th Cir.1984) (per curiam) (“[E]ffective assistance of counsel within the range of competence required of attorneys representing defendants in criminal cases is indispensable to a voluntary guilty plea.”) (quotation omitted); Scott v. Wainwright, 698 F.2d 427, 429 (11th Cir.1983) (“[A] guilty plea cannot have been knowing and voluntary ... if a defendant does not receive reasonably effective assistance of counsel in connection with the decision to plead guilty, because the plea does not then represent an informed choice.”) (citation omitted); In re Sealed Case, 488 F.3d 1011, 1015 (D.C.Cir.2007) (“It is well-established that the validity of a guilty plea depends on whether the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice, and that the voluntariness of the plea depends on whether counsel’s advice satisfies the Sixth Amendment guarantee of effective assistance.”) (quotation omitted).
This court has also endorsed that view. See, e.g., Siers v. Ryan, 773 F.2d 37, 42 (3d Cir.1985). We cannot avoid examining whether Boyd received the effective assistance of counsel when making his guilty plea.
B. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
The Sixth Amendment provides that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” U.S. Const, amend. VI. “An accused’s right to
*350be represented by counsel is a fundamental component of our criminal justice system.” United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 653, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984). Assistance of counsel is fundamental because “[counsel] are the means through which” the accused’s other rights are guaranteed. Id. “Of all the rights that an accused person has, the right to be represented by counsel is by far the most pervasive for it affects his ability to assert any other rights he may have.” Id. at 654, 104 S.Ct. 2039 (quotation omitted).
The right to counsel means “ ‘the right to the effective assistance of counsel.’ ” Id. (quoting McMann, 397 U.S. at 771 n. 14, 90 S.Ct. 1441). That is because the text of the Sixth Amendment itself suggests that the accused must receive “Assistance,” and that assistance must be “for his defence.” Id. The Supreme Court has thus stated that if counsel does not provide “actual ‘Assistance,’ ” it is a violation of the guarantee provided by the Sixth Amendment. Id. Otherwise, the requirement of counsel would be a mere “sham,” meaning nothing more than formal compliance with the Constitution. Id. (citation and internal quotations omitted).
The right to effective assistance of counsel applies to an individual pleading guilty, just as it would apply to an individual electing to stand trial. See Von Moltke v. Gillies, 332 U.S. 708, 721, 68 S.Ct. 316, 92 L.Ed. 309 (1948). The decision whether to plead guilty is a fundamental decision in a criminal case. Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 751, 103 S.Ct. 3308, 77 L.Ed.2d 987 (1983).
1. Trial Counsel’s Performance
Analysis of the merits of Boyd’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel requires application of the familiar two-prong test enunciated by the Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The first prong entails a determination whether trial counsel’s performance was deficient when measured by an objective reasonableness standard. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Second, if counsel’s performance was deficient, it is necessary to consider whether the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. Id.
In Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 58, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985), the Supreme Court held that “the two-part Strickland v. Washington test applies to challenges to guilty pleas based on ineffective assistance of counsel.” The Court explained that “[i]n the context of guilty pleas, the first half of the Strickland v. Washington test is nothing more than a restatement of the standard of attorney competence already set forth in Tollett v. Henderson ... and McMann v. Richardson ...Id. at 58-59, 106 S.Ct. 366. The McMann standard requires that counsel’s advice in connection with a guilty plea be “ ‘within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases.’ ” Id. at 56, 106 S.Ct. 366 (quoting McMann, 397 U.S. at 771, 90 S.Ct. 1441). In short, counsel’s performance in connection with a guilty plea must meet standards of objective reasonableness. Id. at 57, 106 S.Ct. 366.21
*351It is well-established Supreme Court precedent that an accused individual has the ultimate authority to decide whether to plead guilty and whether or not to accept a plea offer extended by the prosecution. See Jones, 463 U.S. at 751, 103 S.Ct. 3308 (emphasizing that the defendant has the ultimate authority to make fundamental decisions regarding the case, including whether to plead guilty); Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 819, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975) (explaining that the Sixth Amendment grants to accused the personal right to make his defense); Von Moltke, 332 U.S. at 721, 68 S.Ct. 316 (stating that the accused must decide whether to plead guilty); see also Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052 (noting that counsel has “particular duties to consult with the defendant on important decisions and to keep the defendant informed of important developments in the course of the prosecution”).
Because there are weighty consequences at stake, the decision whether to plead guilty is an intensely personal one that may be made only by the defendant. See Gov’t of Virgin Islands v. Weatherwax, 77 F.3d 1425, 1435 (3d Cir.1996) (stating that the decisions regarding the plea process “ultimately must be made by the defendant [himself]”); People v. Whitfield, 40 Ill.2d 308, 239 N.E.2d 850, 852 (1968) (concluding that the right to accept state’s plea offer belonged to defendant, not to counsel or defendant’s mother). There could be an exception to that rule if an individual is deemed incompetent or a minor, neither of which is at issue here.
The Commonwealth seeks to bypass the uniform authority adhering to the rule set forth above by referring to Sciolla’s difficulty communicating with Boyd and his subjective good intentions to use Boyd’s mother as a “translator.”22 A review of the case law reveals no “communication problems” exception to the constitutional rule that the defendant must make the decision whether to plead guilty following direct consultation with counsel, and the Commonwealth has cited no such case.
The defendant’s right to make fundamental decisions affecting the “objectives of the representation” is also well-established in this circuit. See, e.g., Weatherwax, 77 F.3d at 1435 (stating that “fundamental” decisions, like the decision whether to plead guilty, relate directly to the objectives of representation and thus must be made by the defendant himself) (citing Model Rules of Profl Conduct R. 1.2(a) (1994)). See also Sistrunk v. Vaughn, 96 F.3d 666, 670 (3d Cir.1996) (explaining that the decision whether to plead guilty is a fundamental decision reserved for the defendant himself to make).
In United States ex rel. Caruso v. Zelinsky, 689 F.2d 435, 436 (3d Cir.1982), defendant Caruso was convicted of murder following a trial, and was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment. When he later discovered that trial counsel failed to advise him that the prosecutor had offered a plea *352bargain if he agreed to plead guilty, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus based upon ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court granted the writ. On review, we agreed with the district court’s conclusion that the failure of counsel to communicate to Caruso the prosecutor’s plea bargain offer was a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. We stated that “[t]he decision to reject a plea bargain offer ... is a decision for the accused to make.” Id. at 438. We explained that the right to counsel attaches during the guilty plea process because the right to counsel attaches at all “ ‘critical stages’ of the criminal process,” and the guilty plea stage is such a “critical stage.” Id. (citation omitted). We also stated that “[i]t would seem that, in the ordinary case, a failure of counsel to advise his client of a plea bargain would constitute a gross deviation from accepted professional standards.” Id.23
Other courts of appeals have held the same. In United States v. Blaylock, 20 F.3d 1458, 1465 (9th Cir.1994), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit collected cases from five other circuits agreeing that defense counsel’s failure to communicate to the accused the existence of a plea bargain offer, as well as the failure to advise the client of the available options and consequences of such an offer, constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel.
In Boyd’s case, Sciolla provided ineffective assistance of counsel in three ways. First, there is no dispute that Sciolla did not communicate to Boyd directly the Commonwealth’s plea offer. Because a defendant’s decisions regarding a guilty plea are inherently personal ones, it was a gross deviation from accepted professional standards for counsel to have communicated with Boyd’s mother, rather than Boyd. See Caruso, 689 F.2d at 438.
Second, consultation with Mrs. Boyd would not excuse counsel’s ineffectiveness because the duty of effective representation is one owed directly to the accused, not the accused’s family. If counsel had concerns about Boyd’s competency, it would have been prudent to request a competency evaluation. That duty cannot be excused based upon after-the-fact arguments about communication difficulties.
Third, counsel did not even communicate the offer to Mrs. Boyd until after he rejected it. Once counsel rejected the offer, he reduced the spectrum of possibilities available to Boyd. The act of rejecting the offer before communicating it to the defendant is constitutionally deficient because the case law clearly requires that such a fundamental decision must be made by the defendant. See Jones, 463 U.S. at 751, 103 S.Ct. 3308.
Each one of those actions would be enough to find that counsel’s performance failed to meet constitutional standards. But here, the constitutional ineffectiveness runs even deeper. Specifically, Sciolla never counseled Boyd in connection with the guilty plea; he never informed Boyd of his potential sentencing exposure under the statute and the sentencing guidelines, and he never gave Boyd meaningful advice about the pros and cons of each option— the plea bargain offer, the open guilty plea, or the trial.
We have held that counsel must reasonably inform a defendant regarding his potential sentencing exposure and the various options a defendant faces in the plea bargaining stage of a criminal case. In United States v. Day, 969 F.2d 39, 40 (3d *353Cir.1992), we held that a facially valid claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was presented by defendant Day’s allegation that, although his counsel told him about a plea offer extended by the prosecutor, he did not counsel him about the potential effect of the United States Sentencing Guidelines, nor did he explain the mandatory maximum sentence exposure. Day argued that the failure to counsel him about his potential options and sentencing exposure constituted sub-standard assistance. We agreed that if what Day alleged was true, he would have made a showing of constitutionally deficient performance. Id. at 42. We explained that “a defendant has the right to make a reasonably informed decision whether to accept a plea offer.” Id. at 43 (citing Hill, 474 U.S. at 56-57, 106 S.Ct. 366; Von Moltke, 332 U.S. at 721, 68 S.Ct. 316 (“Pri- or to trial an accused is entitled to rely upon his counsel to make an independent examination of the facts, circumstances, pleadings and laws involved and then to offer his informed opinion as to what plea should be entered.”)). Included in that informed decision is knowledge regarding the comparative sentencing exposure between the accused’s various options. Day, 969 F.2d at 43. We therefore remanded to the district court to conduct an evidentiary hearing. Id. at 47.
As we explained in Weatherwax, 77 F.3d at 1436, the requirement that counsel consult with his or her client concerning issues on which the client has the final word enables the accused to assist with his or her own defense. We stated that “the client’s views and desires concerning the best course to be followed are relevant considerations that must be evaluated and taken into account by counsel.” Id. We noted that consultation promotes a strong attorney-client relationship, and enables the accused to seek alternative representation if he or she does not agree with the course of conduct undertaken by counsel. Id. at 1436-37.
In Strickland, the Supreme Court “pointed to ‘[prevailing norms of practice as reflected in American Bar Association standards’ as guides ‘to determining what is reasonable.’ ” Boria v. Keane, 99 F.3d 492, 496 (2d Cir.1996) (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052). According to the American Bar Association’s standard, “[a] defense lawyer in a criminal case has the duty to advise his client fully on whether a particular plea to a charge appears to be desirable.” See id. (emphasis omitted) (citing Model Code of Profl Responsibility EC 7-7 (1992)). The performance required of defense counsel is not merely telling the client that there is a plea bargain offer or even telling the client the nature of the offer. Rather, the constitutionally required performance is that of complete disclosure in conjunction with full advice and counsel regarding the client’s potential sentencing exposure, options regarding plea bargains, and the potential consequences with respect to each option.
In this case, in addition to not communicating the offer to Boyd at all, Sciolla, like the defense lawyer in Day, did not counsel Boyd about the advantages and disadvantages of the plea offer, or how it compared to the options of entering an open plea or going to trial. Thus, Boyd was in no position to make a reasonably informed decision regarding his plea because counsel failed to advise him about the statutory maximum sentence, the sentencing guidelines, and differences between the options he faced. Counsel never told Boyd he could receive a sentence greater than four to eight years imprisonment. See App. at 45^6. As a result, as Sciolla testified, Boyd had little, or no, participation in the decision-making process regarding the plea process. App. at 46.
*354In sum, Boyd’s counsel’s performance was below the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases. There was, in effect, a complete lack of meaningful assistance with respect to the guilty plea process. The Pennsylvania Superior Court’s conclusion that “counsel’s actions cannot be deemed ineffective,” App. at 88, was an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court, because it was based on the Superior Court’s finding that Boyd’s “counsel informed him of the existence of the first plea bargain,” App. at 85, which itself was an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented to the Superior Court.
Judge Hardiman avoids any comment on the above analysis of Boyd’s ineffectiveness of counsel claim by his conclusion that Boyd was not entitled to a hearing in federal court, Hardiman Op. at 374 et seq., and that Boyd’s state court offer of proof was insufficient to establish prejudice. Id. I consider Boyd’s showing relating to the prejudice issue first.
2. Prejudice
As the Supreme Court has stated, prejudice requires a showing that “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. This requirement has been applied, inter alia, in cases such as this where the claim is ineffectiveness in the guilty plea context. See Hill, 474 U.S. at 59, 106 S.Ct. 366; Caruso, 689 F.2d at 438. In such an instance, “then, of course, the prejudice question is whether, absent the ineffective assistance,” there is a reasonable probability that the defendant would have accepted the plea bargain offer. See 5 Wayne R. LaFave et al., Criminal Procedure § 21.3(b), at 116, 125-26 (2d ed.1999) (hereinafter “LaFave”).
The question arises what constitutes a “reasonable probability”? We have explained that Strickland “does not require certainty or even a preponderance of the evidence that the outcome would have been different with effective assistance of counsel; it requires only [a] ‘reasonable probability....’” Day, 969 F.2d at 45 n. 8 (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 693-94, 104 S.Ct. 2052; Hill, 474 U.S. at 57, 106 S.Ct. 366). It is a relatively low standard, given that it is not necessary to even prove it is “more likely than not” that the outcome would be different.
This court has held that when a defendant would have otherwise accepted a plea bargain offer, there is prejudice in the mere fact that s/he lost that opportunity if the plea bargain offer included a significantly lesser degree of punishment than the sentence received. In Caruso, we held that Caruso had alleged prejudice because he claimed that he received a significant additional term of imprisonment resulting from trial counsel’s failure to communicate a plea offer that Caruso would have accepted. 689 F.2d at 438. We considered two essential factors: (1) whether Caruso would have accepted the plea bargain offer, and (2) whether Caruso received a significantly greater sentence than that which was offered in the plea bargain. Id. In applying those factors, we concluded that “Caruso allege[d] the requisite prejudice, a significant additional term of imprisonment that resulted from counsel’s failure to communicate the plea offer which he would have accepted.” Id.
We rejected the government’s argument that, because Caruso received a fair trial subsequent to his counsel’s failure to inform him of a plea offer, the fair trial remedied the deprivation. 689 F.2d at 438 (citing Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. 545, 557-64, 99 S.Ct. 2993, 61 L.Ed.2d 739 (1979) (rejecting state’s argument that habeas re*355view should be foreclosed where claimed error did not affect determination of guilt)). We explained that such an argument was untenable in the plea bargaining context because the subsequent proceeding could not remedy the fact that the defendant was denied the opportunity to present the plea bargain to the judge. Id. Although we did not presume prejudice, we did find that, if Caruso made a showing that he would have accepted the plea offer, the loss of that opportunity prejudiced him even though he subsequently received a fair trial. Our analysis came close to presuming prejudice but created a requirement that the petitioner prove that he would have accepted the original plea offer.
We considered this issue again in Day, 969 F.2d at 45, where Day, who rejected a plea offer of five years imprisonment and ultimately received a sentence of almost twenty-two years imprisonment, alleged that trial counsel failed to tell him what his sentencing exposure was under the sentencing guidelines and under the statutory maximum penalty. We held that Day’s allegations, if true, created a showing of prejudice. We rejected the district court’s holding that because Day received a subsequent fair trial, he could not have suffered prejudice. Id. at 44. We reiterated our holding in Caruso that a subsequent fair trial does not remedy the harm caused to a defendant when he is deprived by counsel of the opportunity to accept a plea bargain and be sentenced with that bargain in place. Id.
In Day, we explained that the basis for our conclusion was that “the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel guarantees more than the Fifth Amendment right to a fair trial.” Id. at 45. In other words, in the plea bargaining context even if counsel’s constitutionally deficient conduct does not affect the determination of the accused’s guilt under the Fifth Amendment, see Caruso, 689 F.2d at 438 (citing Rose, 443 U.S. at 557-64, 99 S.Ct. 2993), petitioner has shown prejudice if there is a “reasonable probability” that the constitutionally deficient performance resulted in an outcome different than that which would have occurred if counsel had been effective. See Day, 969 F.2d at 45.
In United States v. Gordon, 156 F.3d 376 (2d Cir.1998), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed a similar issue. Gordon, whose offenses subjected him to imprisonment for 262-327 months, was not told by counsel that the government had made a plea offer somewhere in the range of 84-115 months. Id. at 377-78. Nor did Gordon’s attorney counsel him about the difference between the range in the plea offer and that in the potential maximum sentence. Id.
The Second Circuit held that the relevant inquiry as to prejudice because of counsel’s ineffectiveness was whether there was a “reasonable probability” that the outcome would have been different had Gordon been accurately informed of his sentencing exposure. Id. at 380-81. If so, Gordon suffered prejudice. The Second Circuit held that he did, based on the fact that Gordon “did not have accurate information upon which to make his decision to pursue further plea negotiations or go to trial.” Id. at 380. In reaching this decision, the court relied on two factors: (1) Gordon’s statement that he would have accepted the plea bargain offer had counsel told him about it and counseled him with respect to his potential sentencing exposure (i.e., subjective evidence), and (2) the presence of “objective evidence” in the form of the great disparity between Gordon’s actual sentencing exposure under the Guidelines and the sentence exposure represented by Gordon’s counsel. Id. at 380-81.
*356Coincidentally, a case strikingly similar to Boyd’s has recently been decided by the Supreme Court of South Carolina. In Davie v. South Carolina, 381 S.C. 601, 675 S.E.2d 416 (2009), the petitioner, pursuant to a plea agreement, pled guilty to various cocaine offenses, child endangerment, and traffic offenses. The judge sentenced him to an aggregate of 27 years imprisonment which petitioner did not appeal. Instead, he filed a Post Conviction Relief Application (PCR) asking the court to vacate his guilty plea on the ground, inter alia, that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because his plea counsel had failed to inform him of a written plea agreement in which the state offered a 15-year sentence in exchange for his plea to all of the pending charges. Plea counsel testified he was unaware of the state’s offer until after it had expired because he was relocating his office. The PCR court denied relief, finding that petitioner knowingly and voluntarily pled guilty because he was fully advised of the rights he was waiving by pleading guilty and understood the underlying charges.
The Supreme Court of South Carolina reversed, applying an analysis that was comparable to the Second Circuit’s in Gordon. Although the Court stated that it gives great deference to the post-conviction relief court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, it adopted the rule “that counsel’s failure to convey a plea offer constitutes deficient performance ...,” a rule that would be “consistent with the majority of other state and federal jurisdictions,” citing in excess of 20 other opinions. Id. at 420. The Court held that even if counsel was not aware of the plea offer he was deficient in not objecting to the plea hearing.
The Court then turned to the issue before us, whether petitioner was prejudiced by this deficient performance. The Court noted that following Strickland, some state courts have “essentially presumed prejudice merely based on the fact that plea counsel failed to communicate a plea offer,” while “other state courts have found prejudice based on the defendant’s self-serving statements that he would have accepted the plea offer had he been made aware of it.” Id. at 421-22. The Court noted that other courts have applied a burden that is seemingly higher and requires objective evidence to show prejudice, i.e., not only that defendant would have accepted the offer but that he would have received a lesser sentence than that which he received.
The Court opted to join those courts that use a case-by-case analysis looking strictly at the facts of each case. The Court noted that it is not always necessary for a defendant to offer objective evidence to support a claim of actual prejudice. It concluded that Davie had proven that he was prejudiced by plea counsel’s deficient performance and that the difference in the sentence petitioner received and the plea offer is proof of prejudice. It noted that both the state counsel and plea counsel acknowledged that the state originally offered a 15-year sentence in exchange for the guilty plea, that plea counsel failed to communicate the offer to Davie, that both plea counsel and Davie testified that had this offer been communicated Davie would have accepted the plea agreement, and that had he accepted the original offer, he would have received a significantly lesser sentence than the 27-year sentenced that was imposed.
Boyd’s situation fits precisely into the analysis applied by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The Commonwealth has not denied that there was a plea offer of 4-10 years, Sciolla admitted he failed to communicate the offer to Boyd, Boyd testified he would have accepted it had he known of the offer (which Sciolla never counseled him about), and had he accepted it he *357would have received a significantly lower sentence than the 8-22 years sentence that was imposed.
In Day, this court stated, “[t]he government mocks Day’s contention that although he did not plead guilty when he believed that his sentence exposure was approximately eleven years, he would have pleaded guilty had he known that he would receive a sentence of almost twenty-two years. We do not find the contention so implausible that it was properly dismissed without a hearing.... [W]e do not find it at all implausible that a young man would think twice before risking over 3800 extra days in jail just to gain the chance of acquittal of a crime that he knew that he had committed.” Day, 969 F.2d at 45.
In this case, as in Day, Boyd’s failure to accept the proffered guilty plea led to a sentence substantially higher than offered, i.e., a sentence of 84-240 months imprisonment compared to the offered 48-96 (or 48-120) months imprisonment. Such a finding is sufficient under our precedent, Gordon, and Davie, to demonstrate prejudice.
3. Right to a Hearing
I turn next to Judge Hardiman’s disapproval of the evidentiary hearing held before the Magistrate Judge and the evidence produced there — the first opportunity Boyd was given to produce the relevant facts of counsel’s failure to inform him of the plea offer and failure to counsel him regarding the guilty plea. This issue of the right to an evidentiary hearing in habeas corpus cases is of great importance to the district courts. Although the case law speaks in terms of a hearing in the district court, it is equally applicable to a hearing before a .magistrate judge to whom the matter is referred by a district judge. A thorough analysis of the relevant case law suggests that not only did the federal court have discretion to grant Boyd an evidentiary hearing, it was actually required to do so.
In Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 312-13, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963), a case involving the proper standard for determining whether to grant or deny an evidentiary hearing in federal habeas corpus proceedings, the United States Supreme Court announced the following rule: “Where the facts are in dispute, the federal court in habeas corpus must hold an evidentiary hearing if the habeas applicant did not receive a full and fair evidentiary hearing in a state court, either at the time of the trial or in a collateral proceeding. In other words a federal evidentiary hearing is required unless the state-court trier of fact has after a full hearing reliably found the relevant facts.” (emphasis added). The Court enumerated six specific circumstances in which a federal habeas court must grant an evidentiary hearing: “(1) the merits of the factual dispute were not resolved in the state hearing; (2) the state factual determination is not fairly supported by the record as a whole; (3) the fact-finding procedure employed by the state court was not adequate to afford a full and fair hearing; (4) there is a substantial allegation of newly discovered evidence; (5) the material facts were not adequately developed at the state-court hearing; or (6) for any reason it appears that the state trier of fact did not afford the habeas applicant a full and fair fact hearing.” Id. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745. With respect to scenario (5), the Court reasoned that a federal hearing is necessary if, for any reason “not attributable to the inexcusable neglect of petitioner,” crucial evidence pertinent to the federal claim was not developed. Id. at 317, 83 S.Ct. 745.
If an evidentiary hearing is not mandatory, the Court explained, “[i]n all other cases where the material facts are in dispute, the holding of such a hearing is in *358the discretion of the district judge.” Id. at 318, 83 S.Ct. 745. Importantly, the Court stressed that “[i]n every case [the district court] has the power, constrained only by his sound discretion, to receive evidence bearing upon the applicant’s constitutional claim.” Id.24 The opportunity for a petitioner, such as Boyd, to submit an affidavit does not equate with the “full and fair evidentiary hearing” referred to in Townsend.
This court has stated that “[following Townsend it was generally recognized that district courts had plenary authority to conduct evidentiary hearings in their discretion, constrained only by those six occasions in which a hearing was required.” Cristin v. Brennan, 281 F.3d 404, 414 (3d Cir.2002) (citing Campbell v. Vaughn, 209 F.3d 280, 286 (3d Cir.2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1084, 121 S.Ct. 789, 148 L.Ed.2d 685 (2001); Hakeem v. Beyer, 990 F.2d 750, 770-71 (3d Cir.1993); Keller v. Petsock, 853 F.2d 1122, 1129 (3d Cir.1988)).
Almost thirty years later, the Supreme Court partially overruled Townsend, albeit not on this issue. In Keeney v. Tamayo-Reyes, 504 U.S. 1, 112 S.Ct. 1715, 118 L.Ed.2d 318 (1992), the Court addressed the limited question “whether the deliberate bypass standard is the correct standard for excusing a habeas petitioner’s failure to develop a material fact in a state-court proceedings.” Id. at 5, 112 S.Ct. 1715. The Court replaced the “deliberate bypass” standard with the “cause and prejudice” standard for determining whether a petitioner’s failure to develop facts in state-court proceedings should be excused. Id. at 11-12, 112 S.Ct. 1715.25
We considered the effect of Keeney in Cristin, where we stated, “Keeney never applied ... to all requests for evidentiary hearings in habeas actions. The Court described its holding as relevant only when the petitioner ‘fail[ed] to develop’ the facts of his habeas claim in state court.” Cristin, 281 F.3d at 415 (alteration in original) (citation omitted). In other words, the holding in Keeney was limited to “circumstances in which the material facts were not developed in state court due to the fault of the petitioner.” Id.
In Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 420, 434, 120 S.Ct. 1479, 146 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), decided after the passage of AEDPA, the Supreme Court explained that “the opening clause of § 2254(e)(2)26 codifies Kee*359ney’s threshold standard of diligence, so that prisoners who would have had to satisfy Keeney’s test for excusing the deficiency in the state-court record prior to AEDPA are now controlled by § 2254(e)(2).” The Court clarified that, as in Keeney, “[b]y the terms of its opening clause [§ 2254(e)(2)] applies only to prisoners who have ‘failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in State court proceedings.’ ” Id. at 430, 120 S.Ct. 1479. The Court elucidated, “[u]nder the opening clause of § 2254(e)(2), a failure to develop the factual basis of a claim is not established unless there is lack of diligence, or some greater fault, attributable to the prisoner or the prisoner’s counsel.” Id. at 432, 120 S.Ct. 1479.
As to the concept of diligence, the Court continued, “[t]he question is not whether the facts could have been discovered but instead whether the prisoner was diligent in his efforts.” Id. at 435, 120 S.Ct. 1479. It does not matter whether the petitioner could have been successful; rather, what matters is whether the petitioner made a reasonable attempt to pursue his/her claims in state court. Id. “Diligence will require in the usual case that the prisoner, at a minimum, seek an evidentiary hearing in state court in the manner prescribed by state law.” Id. at 437, 120 S.Ct. 1479. If there has been no lack of diligence on the part of petitioner, then he has not “failed to develop” the facts under § 2254(e)(2)’s opening clause, and “he will be excused from showing compliance with the balance of the subsection’s requirements.” Id.
In other words, if a petitioner seeks and is denied a hearing in state court, there is nothing in § 2254(e)(2) that bars the district court from granting a hearing. See id. at 436-37, 120 S.Ct. 1479. If the petitioner is not in the “group that ‘would have had to satisfy Keeney’s test,’ ” Cristin, 281 F.3d at 415 (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 434, 120 S.Ct. 1479), then the Townsend rule applies, and the district courts have the requirement, or at least the discretion,' to grant an evidentiary hearing. See, e.g., Taylor v. Horn, 504 F.3d 416 (3d Cir.2007); Cristin, 281 F.3d at 415; Campbell, 209 F.3d at 287; Love v. Morton, 112 F.3d 131 (3d Cir.1997); see also 1 Hertz & Liebman § 20.1b, at 804 (“Even after AEDPA ... Townsend’s mandatory-hearing standards — and its delegation to district courts of broad discretion to hold evidentiary hearings that are not mandated — continues to govern all situations save those in which the petitioner’s procedural default accounts for the state courts’ failure to develop the material facts.”) For a full discussion of the requirement of a federal evidentiary hearing, see Goldblum v. Klem, 510 F.3d 204, 243-52 (3d Cir.2007) (Poliak, J., dissenting). In this case, because Boyd did not “fail” to develop the factual record in state court within the meaning of § 2254(e)(2), see Williams, 529 U.S. at 434, 120 S.Ct. 1479; Cristin, 281 F.3d at 415, the District Court was not prohibited from granting an evidentiary hearing.
The Hertz & Liebman treatise cautions that “reviewing federal courts have sometimes confused the Townsend standard for the ‘right to a hearing (as partially modified by Keeney v. Tamayo-Reyes and AEDPA’s section 2254(e)(2)) with the statutory standard for determining the effect of state factfindings (as modified by AED-PA’s sections 2254(d)(2) and 2254(e)(1)).” 1 Hertz & Liebman § 20.2d, at 831. A-though the two inquiries overlap, they are distinct issues. That the state court may have made a finding of fact does not preclude the requirement of a hearing in the federal habeas court if no hearing was granted in the state court.
*360Here, the District Court was required to grant Boyd an evidentiary hearing because ’(1) the petition alleges facts that would entitle Boyd to relief if proven; (2) the fact-based claims are not frivolous; and (3) the factual claims were not previously the subject of a full and fair hearing in the state courts for reasons beyond the control of Boyd and his lawyer. Id. § 20.1b, at 804-06. The absence of an evidentiary hearing cannot be laid at Boyd’s feet. Boyd’s counsel sought, and was denied, an evidentiary hearing on his ineffectiveness assistance of counsel claim in his direct appeal, App. at 106, and in his subsequent PCRA petition, and that denial of a hearing was affirmed on appeal to the Superior Court in its 2005 decision, App. at 72-73, the same court earlier responsible for the significant misstatement of fact in its 2002 decision. Boyd therefore met the diligence standard enunciated in Williams; thus, he was not responsible for the lack of a hearing, and AEDPA does not limit the federal court’s discretion to grant a hearing in this case. It was therefore not error for the federal court to have granted Boyd an evidentiary hearing.
Even if it were not mandatory, there is no question that under the relevant Supreme Court precedent and AEDPA, the District Court had discretion to grant Boyd a hearing. See Schriro v. Landrigan, 550 U.S. 465, 127 S.Ct. 1933, 1939, 167 L.Ed.2d 836 (2007). This court recently stated that if a petitioner’s factual record is insufficiently developed in the state court “through no fault of his own,” § 2254(e)(2) does not preclude the district court from granting a hearing. Goldblum v. Klem, 510 F.3d 204, 222 (3d Cir.2007). “In cases where an applicant for federal habeas relief is not barred from obtaining an evidentiary hearing by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2), the decision to grant such a hearing rests in the discretion of the district court.... In exercising that discretion, courts focus on whether a new evidentiary hearing would be meaningful, in that a new hearing would have the potential to advance the petitioner’s claim.” Id. (citations and internal quotations omitted).
The Supreme Court has never disavowed or retreated from its decision in Townsend v. Sain. The Court cited Townsend in Boumediene v. Bush, — U.S. -, -, 128 S.Ct. 2229, 2270, 171 L.Ed.2d 41 (2008), and placed the constitutional right to habeas corpus above even Congress’ power to emasculate its essential features, such as the right to a hearing. Moreover, the Supreme Court cited Townsend for the proposition that prior to AEDPA the decision whether to grant an evidentiary hearing was left to the sound discretion of the district courts, and “[tjhat basic rule has not changed.” Schriro v. Landrigan, 550 U.S. 465, 473, 127 S.Ct. 1933, 167 L.Ed.2d 836 (2007) (emphasis added). This court, in a post-AEDPA case, applied Townsend as the relevant legal standard for determining whether an evidentiary hearing is required in a postAEDPA era. See Richardson v. Pa. Bd. of Prob. & Parole, 423 F.3d 282, 293 (3d Cir.2005).
Boyd’s entitlement to an evidentiary hearing is supported by years of precedent of this court. See, e.g., Goldblum, 510 F.3d at 221 (emphasizing that decision to grant evidentiary hearing should be “left to the sound discretion of district courts”) (citation and internal quotations omitted); Richardson, 423 F.3d at 293 (applying Townsend as relevant legal standard for determining whether evidentiary hearing is required in post-AEDPA era); Marshall v. Hendricks, 307 F.3d 36, 117 (3d Cir. 2002) (applying Townsend to require a hearing where district court failed to hold one in post-AEDPA era); Campbell, 209 F.3d at 286-87 (stating that AEDPA permits evidentiary hearing in federal court if petitioner diligently sought to develop fac*361tual basis for his claim in state court but was denied the opportunity for a hearing by the state court); Yohn v. Love, 76 F.3d 508, 516 n. 12 (3d Cir.1996) (stating general rule that “[i]n cases where an evidentiary hearing is not mandatory ... the holding of a hearing is left to the discretion of the district court”); Lesko v. Lehman, 925 F.2d 1527, 1539 (3d Cir.1991) (stating that district court “must hold an evidentiary hearing, if the habeas applicant did not receive a full and fair evidentiary hearing in a state court”) (citation and internal quotations omitted); United States v. Dawson, 857 F.2d 923, 927-28 (3d Cir. 1988); Keller, 853 F.2d at 1129-30 (vacating district court’s denial of petition for habeas corpus and remanding for an evidentiary hearing which was required where no hearing had been held in state courts and facts were disputed); Mayberry v. Petsock, 821 F.2d 179, 185 (3d Cir. 1987) (stating general rule that “where there are material facts in dispute which if proven would entitle a petitioner to relief and the petitioner has not been afforded a full and fair evidentiary hearing in state court, either at the time of trial or in a collateral proceeding, a federal habeas court must hold an evidentiary hearing”); Bibby v. Tard, 741 F.2d 26, 30 (3d Cir. 1984) (“An evidentiary hearing is required if there is a dispute of material fact-that is, facts which, if true, would entitle the petitioner to relief-and the petitioner was not afforded a full and fair evidentiary hearing in the state courts.”); United States ex rel. McNair v. New Jersey, 492 F.2d 1307, 1309 (3d Cir.1974) (hearing required in district court where material facts not adequately developed at state court hearing). See also United States v. Carmichael, 216 F.3d 224, 227 (2d Cir.2000) (hearing was necessary to determine whether defendant would have accepted plea offer and whether trial court would have approved it).
The importance of an evidentiary hearing is illustrated by the testimony at the only evidentiary hearing in this case that was held by the Magistrate Judge, which is set out in note 4 supra. This significant evidence directly contradicts the Pennsylvania Superior Court’s determination that trial counsel informed Boyd of the existence of the plea offer. This case therefore directly falls within the exception to AEDPA’s requirement of deference because the state court determination “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2).
Judge Hardiman goes on at length to explain why, under Pennsylvania law, the Pennsylvania courts were not required to grant the hearing request because Boyd could have developed the factual basis of his claim by submitting more detailed affidavits. Therefore, he concludes that the federal court was prohibited from holding the only hearing ever held on Boyd’s petition. This claim has no basis in law, and is not supported by precedent.
Assuming the Pennsylvania courts had the option to deny Boyd’s request for a hearing, that does not mean, and cannot mean, that the federal court was barred from holding a hearing. The discretion afforded to federal district courts to hold a hearing is a cornerstone of Supreme Court habeas corpus precedent going right up to the Schriro case in 2007. Federal law requires, or at a minimum permits, a hearing in a case such as this, even if state law does not.
The issue here is not whether Boyd would have succeeded in his habeas claim-it is Judge Hardiman’s position that Boyd was not entitled to the one evidentiary hearing he received in federal court. Boyd was clearly diligent, the only issue recognized in Williams as relevant to the denial of a state court hearing.
*362Despite the tenor of the footnotes in Judge Hardiman’s comments, I suggest that the proper focus must be on Judge Hardiman’s conclusion repeated throughout that Boyd was not entitled to an evidentiary hearing to further develop the factual record. We cannot glide over the dangerous effect of the process favored by Judge Hardiman. It could preclude any evidentiary hearing at all in a habeas case even though the state courts had declined all requests by the petitioner for an evidentiary hearing, as they did in Boyd’s case. In stark contrast, the Supreme Court has recognized the significance of an evidentiary hearing in habeas corpus cases.
In Wingo v. Wedding, 418 U.S. 461, 474, 94 S.Ct. 2842, 41 L.Ed.2d 879 (1974), the Court stated,
“To experienced lawyers it is commonplace that the outcome of a lawsuit — and hence the vindication of legal rights — • depends more often on how the factfinder appraises the facts than on a disputed construction of a statute or interpretation of a line of precedents. Thus the procedures by which the facts of the case are determined assume an importance fully as great as the validity of the substantive rule of law to be applied.”
(quoting Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S. 513, 520, 78 S.Ct. 1332, 2 L.Ed.2d 1460 (1958)).
Surely, Judge Hardiman would not question the relevance of Justice Brennari’s comments about the importance of developing the facts merely because they were written before the passage of AED-PA. - The respected habeas corpus commentators Hertz and Liebman have commented that even after AEDPA,
[A]n evidentiary hearing is mandatory if three conditions are met: (1) A petitioner alleges facts that, if proved, entitle the party to relief; (2) the petitioner’s factual allegations survive summary dismissal because they are not palpably incredible or patently frivolous or false; and (3) for reasons beyond the control of the petitioner and the pétitioner’s attorney (assuming the attorney rendered constitutionally satisfactory assistance), the factual issues were not previously the subject of a full and fair hearing in the state courts or, if a full and fair state court hearing was held, the hearing did not result in factfindings that resolve all the controlling factual issues.
Hertz & Liebman, Federal Habeas Corpus Practice and Procedure, infra at § 20.3a (emphasis added). All three conditions are satisfied here. But whether mandatory or not, surely the federal court had the discretion to direct an evidentiary hearing.
One might reasonably inquire what Judge Hardiman finds dangerous in the only evidentiary hearing afforded to Boyd, that before the Magistrate Judge. It is, after all, only at that hearing that Sciolla admitted that he did not tell Boyd directly about the Commonwealth’s plea offer, that he rejected that offer even before he told Boyd’s mother, that he did not counsel Boyd about the Pennsylvania Sentencing Guidelines, and that he did not tell Boyd about the potential sentence he could receive. Sciolla’s admissions supply the fulcrum of Boyd’s Sixth Amendment claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, which is the subject of the habeas corpus claim before us.27
What goal is served by requiring the federal habeas court to don blinders to the relevant facts that were never the subject of inquiry by the Pennsylvania courts? In *363this case there is no duplication of effort such as one encounters occasionally in a habeas proceeding. And although Judge Hardiman states as a fact “that Boyd knew about the initial plea offer yet decided to ‘take his chances with the discretion of the comb,’ ” Hardiman Op. at 374, the record made at the evidentiary hearing before the Magistrate Judge, where the witnesses were subject to the Commonwealth’s cross-examination, shows that was not the fact at all. And the Magistrate Judge found to the contrary.
Habeas corpus, and the evidentiary hearing to which petitioner is entitled, subject the constitutional claim of the petitioner to the light of federal review. The blinders proposed by Judge Hardiman would have the federal court limited to seeing through the glass darkly. Paraphrasing the unforgettable words of Eleanor Roosevelt, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
C. Remedy
In my view, we should affirm the District Court’s determination that Boyd has shown both ineffective assistance and prejudice.
The District Court directed that the Commonwealth reinstate its prior offer. The South Carolina Court in Davie, noting there was no evidence that petitioner expressed a desire to proceed to trial rather than plead guilty, imposed a different remedy. It stated that it cannot compel the state to reinstate or the Circuit Court judge to accept the original 15-year plea offer. Instead, it remanded the ease for a new sentencing hearing, but directed the state and the Circuit Court judge to take into consideration the prior 15-year offer.
In light of the disposition of the majority of this court to remand for findings related to the merits, I do not discuss the remedy ordered by the District Court. I note merely that if I were writing for the court, I would have directed that the matter be remanded to the state court for its determination of the appropriate remedy.
Although I maintain my adherence to the foregoing opinion, I believe we have an obligation to make every effort to achieve a judgment concurred in by a' majority of the en banc court. See Green Tree Fin. Corp. v. Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444, 455, 123 S.Ct. 2402, 156 L.Ed.2d 414 (2003) (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment). For that purpose, and because my -view of what I regard as the principal legal issue presented, i.e. the application of Strickland to Boyd’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and the rejection of the reliance in Judge Hardiman’s opinion on Tollett and Mabry in situations such as this, comports with Chief Judge Scirica’s view, I concur in his judgment for the court.
D. Coda
In reviewing the issues on this appeal, we cannot overlook that the Supreme Court has recently re-confirmed the importance of the protection of habeas corpus, and, in particular, the need for judicial review in connection with that constitutional safeguard. The Court stated that the “protection for the privilege of habeas corpus was one of the few safeguards of liberty specified in a Constitution that, at the outset, had no Bill of Rights. In the system conceived by the Framers the writ had a centrality....” Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S.-, 128 S.Ct. 2229, 2244, 171 L.Ed.2d 41 (2008). That was because “[t]he Framers viewed freedom from unlawful restraint as a fundamental precept of liberty, and they understood the writ of habeas corpus as a vital instrument to secure that freedom.” Id.
Nevertheless, the Court stated that “[w]e do consider it uncontroversial, however, that the privilege of habeas corpus entitles the prisoner to a meaningful op*364portunity to demonstrate that he is being held pursuant to the erroneous application or interpretation of relevant law.” Id. at 2266 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Indeed, “the necessary scope of habeas review in part depends upon the rigor of any earlier proceedings.... ” Id. at 2268. Citing Townsend, 372 U.S. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745, the Court noted that “[fjederal habeas petitioners long have had the means to supplement the record on review, even in the postconviction habeas setting.” Id. at 2270. The Court stressed that a petitioner (in that case, a detainee) must be able to present reasonably available evidence to a habeas corpus court, see id. at 2273, noting that in the post-trial habeas cases presentation of evidence is limited only where a habeas petitioner has already had a “full and fair opportunity to develop the factual predicate of his claims” or failed to exercise diligence in doing so. Id. Although the case before us does not involve detainees in Guantanamo, both the Supreme Court’s holding and its language are instructive.

. Judge Hardiman spends much of his opinion on the issue that he categorizes as the "procedural issue,” whether Boyd’s claims are unexhausted and procedurally defaulted. Whether or not the discussion of exhaustion and procedural default in Judge Hardiman’s opinion is correct, I do not propose to comment thereon in this dissent.

. While under oath, Sciolla was asked, "During the conversation that you had with Mrs. Boyd, did you at any time indicate that you had rejected the offer ...?” Sciolla answered, "I did....” App. at 35.

. At oral argument, the Commonwealth conceded that there was no dispute that trial counsel never directly communicated the plea bargain offer to Boyd, once again demonstrating the factual error stated by the Superior Court.

. Q. ... [F]irst of all, at the time you made the conversation to Nancy Boyd to communicate that there had been an offer of four to eight years, had you already rejected the offer?
A. I had. I had pretty much told the assistant district attorney that I thought that was, you know, way over the top; and it wasn’t as if that, you know, that offer was withdrawn, but I had pretty much told, I believe it was Jason Bologna, who was the then assistant D.A. prosecuting this case, that I thought that was unacceptable. And *342I communicated that to Ms. Boyd — Mrs. Boyd.
App. at 40 (emphasis added). Sciolla's failure to discuss the potential sentence with Boyd appears in Sciolla’s other testimony:
Q. And did you go over in detail the sentencing guidelines—
A. No, I—
Q. —with Christopher Boyd—
A. —I never—
Q. —before that — before you made that recommendation?
A. No, I would — I—I never talked to them about the sentencing guidelines.
App. at 40-41. And yet again:
Q. And during the time that you were conveying to Nancy Boyd that the Commonwealth had made an offer of four to eight years and you had rejected it as unacceptable, did you also tell Nancy Boyd that Christopher might get as much as 22 years?
A. No. No, I never would have thought that was possible.
Q. And did you ever tell Christopher Boyd that he might get as much as 22 years?
A. Absolutely not.
App. at 41.
The same point was reiterated shortly thereafter:
Q. During the entire time that you were representing Chris Boyd, up until the point where he entered a guilty plea in this case, is it a correct summary of your testimony that you had never discussed Pennsylvania's Sentencing Guidelines with Christopher Boyd?
A. Yes, that is correct.
Q. And is it also correct that you had never told Mr. Boyd that he could get much more than four to eight years if he was convicted?
A. I don’t believe I ever said that he could get more, I — I said I wouldn’t know what the actual sentence would be, but we know that four to eight, I never saw more than four to eight coming at him, so my hope was that we could get below that based on my strategy.
Q. But the information that Mr. Boyd had in his decision-making process was four to eight years is pretty much what he could expect?
A. To the extent he participated—
Q. The maximum?
A. — in the decision-making process.
Q. Okay.
A. And I’m not even sure he did—
Q. Okay.
A. — participate in that.
THE COURT: Just one thing, Mr. Sciolla. You say you’re not sure that he participated. Did you ever discuss the four to eight with him?
THE WITNESS: Only through his mom. THE COURT: His mom.
THE WITNESS: Yeah.
App. at 45-46.
Later in the hearing Boyd himself testified as follows:
Q. At some point, did you learn that the Commonwealth had made an offer of four to eight years to you?
A. Yes.
Q. And how did you find that out?
A. Through my mother.
Q. And how old were you, do you recall when this offer was conveyed to you?
A. I was 20. Q. Okay. Did Mr. Sciolla at any time discuss with you directly, you personally, that the Commonwealth had made an offer of four to eight years to you?
A. No, never.
Q. Did Mr. Sciolla tell you at any time before you pled guilty that Pennsylvania had sentencing guidelines?
A. No, never.
Q. Did Mr. Sciolla tell you before you pled guilty that you could get much more than four to eight years in this case?
A. No.
Q. Did Mr. Sciolla at any time ask you personally whether you wanted to accept the four-to-eight-year offer from the Commonwealth?
A. No.
Q. If Mr. Sciolla had explained to you that there were sentencing guidelines in Pennsylvania and that you could get much more than four to eight years if you were convicted, what would you have done regarding the four-to-eight-year plea offer?
A. I would have accepted the offer.
App. at 60-61.

. Despite answering "no” to the question whether he ever told Boyd about the plea *343bargain offer, Sciolla then stated that "[tjhere were moments when I sat with Chris and I did repeat the offer to him, but it would have been after — way after the fact....” App. at 38. It is not clear when that would have occurred, if it did, or what Sciolla meant by that statement. Still, there are three separate times where the record evidence supports the conclusion that Sciolla never — not even prior to the open plea — discussed the plea bargain offer directly with Boyd. See App. at 38 (lines 14-18), 46 (lines 18-23), 60 (lines 12-15).

. At the Magistrate Judge's hearing Sciolla testified that "I don’t believe [the 4-8 year offer] was ever off the table,” App. at 40, but there is no record corroboration of a continuing offer by the Commonwealth.

. The affidavit, in relevant part, reads as follows:
I, CHRISTOPHER BOYD, do hereby declare and verify as follows:
1. I was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses arising from an incident on July 21, 2000. I am 21 years old, and my date of birth is 6-24-80. I had no prior arrests, adult or juvenile, and no prior contact of any kind with the criminal justice system.
2. On July 28, 2000, I met with attorney Guy Sciolla at my parents’ house, where I also resided. Mr. Sciolla is a close friend of my mother's niece by marriage, Patty Smith. He said that he would represent me in my criminal case.
3. On January 4, 2001, Mr. Sciolla spoke to my mother on the phone and asked her to tell me that the D.A.’s Office had offered me a plea of four to eight years in prison if I would plead guilty. He told me, through my mother, that the offer was "unacceptable.” He did not discuss the offer directly with me on that date or at any other time.
4. Except for this case, my parents and I are unfamiliar with the criminal justice system and we were entirely dependent upon my attorney’s advice. He did not explain the Sentencing Guidelines to us.
5. At the sentencing hearing on December 18, 2001, I was sentenced to serve eight to twenty-two years in prison. I am presently incarcerated at SCI-Waymart.
6. I now understand the Sentencing Guidelines which apply to my case. At Offense Gravity Score of 11, where a deadly weapon is used, the standard range sentence is 54-72 months, plus or minus 12. App. at 116.

. The voluntariness of a plea, vel non, is distinct from the issue of counsel's ineffectiveness for failing to provide adequate counseling. Cf. United States v. Day, 969 F.2d 39, 45 (3d Cir.1992) (''[T]he Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel guarantees more than the Fifth Amendment right to a fair trial.”).

. After the District Court order directing the Commonwealth to extend its plea offer *347once again, the District Attorney, by letter dated August 22, 2007, wrote to Boyd that it “formally presents a plea offer in the above referenced case of four to ten years of incarceration in a state correctional institution.” Response to Application for Unconditional Release, Exhibit A, Boyd v. Warden, SCI Way-mart, No. 06-0491 (E.D.Pa. Aug. 22, 2007). The letter further states that "this offer is conditional on the outcome of the pending appeal from Judge Tucker's order granting habeas relief in this case.” The appeal has remained pending for almost two years since that letter; Boyd remains in jail. *351deference is due only when the finding is not unreasonable. Thus notwithstanding note 5 in Chief Judge Scirica’s opinion, I do distinguish between the question whether deference is due and whether deference is due in this case. However, I am also convinced that, given the unreasonableness of the state court factual finding in this case, no deference is due. My opinion is therefore focused on the merits of Boyd’s claim.

. I note briefly that, while we would normally be required to defer to the findings of a state court on a factual issue, such deference is not required here, as the state court’s finding that Boyd’s affidavit admitted he had been informed by trial counsel of the initial plea "was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). The finding was unreasonable because Boyd's affidavit, reproduced in full in note 7, stated that he had never personally been informed of the plea offer.
Although I agree with Chief Judge Scirica that, under AEDPA, the factual finding of the Superior Court on direct appeal is the type of state court factual finding to which a federal court must show deference, I note that such

. Such a communication, may well violate Rule 1.6 of Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct, which provides that "[a] lawyer shall not reveal information relating to representation of a client unless the client consents after consultation....” See Pa. Rules of Profl Conduct R. 1.6 (Confidentiality of Information) (2000).

. Ultimately, the court remanded to the district court for factual findings regarding whether the plea bargaining claim was procedurally defaulted, an issue that necessitated a determination of cause and prejudice. Caruso, 689 F.2d at 444.

. Townsend afforded great discretion to the district courts to determine whether to grant an evidentiary hearing on the theory that "federal district judges are more intimately familiar with state criminal justice, and with the trial of fact, than are we, and to their sound discretion must be left in very large part the administration of federal habeas corpus.” 372 U.S. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745. The Court had "every reason to be confident that federal district judges, mindful of their delicate role in the maintenance of proper federal-state relations, will not abuse that discretion.” Id. at 318, 83 S.Ct. 745.

. See Keeney, 504 U.S. at 5, 112 S.Ct. 1715 (overruling Townsend only "in this respect”); see also id. at 18, 112 S.Ct. 1715 (stating that "[tjhis holding, of course, directly overrules a portion of Townsend (O’Connor, J., dissenting).

. The relevant section of the statute provides:
(2) If the applicant has failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in State court proceedings, the court shall not hold an evidentiary hearing on the claim unless the applicant shows that'—
(A) the claim relies on—
(i) a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable; or
(ii) a factual predicate that could not have been previously discovered through the exercise of due diligence; and
(B) the facts underlying the claim would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that but for constitutional error, no reasonable factfinder would have found the applicant guilty of the underlying offense.
*35928 U.S.C. § 2254(e).

. When Boyd’s counsel told this court that Boyd’s guilty plea was knowing and voluntary, she may not have fully appreciated the implications of that statement under Tollett. Sciolla’s admissions at the evidentiary hearing clarify that Boyd’s guilty plea was not knowing, as it was entered without adequate assistance of counsel.