Court Opinion

ID: 9456692
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:00:20.46748+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:04.534992
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
The errors specified are couched in generalities and are (1) the sentencing court did not ascertain that the Court which had accepted the guilty plea had complied with Rule 11 (F.R.Cr.P.) and (2) there should have been an evidentiary hearing. More specifically, these alleged errors resolve themselves into the assertion that the Court did not reveal the “allowable range of punishment.” The question of whether there was a factual basis for the plea to the satisfaction of the judge is not in issue.
There can be no doubt (1) that Jones was represented by counsel; (2) that he was adequately advised of the charges against him; (3) that he entered his plea voluntarily; and (4) that he was informed that if he pleaded guilty he *469could be given “a term of imprisonment.” However, appellant argues that, before the judge receiving the guilty plea may accept it, he must advise the defendant of the maximum sentence which might be imposed. The majority accepts this argument and, in effect, writes this requirement into Rule 11. If a defendant’s understanding of the consequences to him of his plea were to be the test of the plea’s validity, any variation of the hoped-for sentence could be pleaded as a ground for vacation of the plea. In my opinion, it is unrealistic to attribute to a defendant, who is considering a guilty plea, an understanding of “consequences” in terms other than the sentence he hopes to receive.
I realize that in Bye v. United States, 435 F.2d 177 (1970), we held that failure to inform a defendant that parole was not available on a narcotics sentence was a “consequence.” In United States v. Vermeulen, 436 F.2d 72 (1970), we held that failure to inform a defendant that he might receive consecutive sentences on his pleas of guilty to two counts of an information where he had been advised of the potential maximum sentence on each count was not a ground for vacating the plea.
Although in the future it will impose but a slight burden on the district court judge to add the requirement of stating the range of the possible sentence, I envision certain adverse possibilities. Plea bargaining (a practice recognized as essential not only in the disposition of many criminal cases but also one beneficial to the guilty defendant) would be seriously impaired. The sentencing judge could hardly be expected to announce : “The maximum sentence is twenty years but I only intend to give you five.” Yet if only the range is stated, a defendant might well have qualms about the fulfillment of his bargain. I, therefore, would not add in this case the requirement of a statement of the range of the possible sentence to the ever-increasing list of “consequences.” There must be some areas in which the attorney-client pre-plea conference (as here) must be presumed to have been adequate. Otherwise all plea-withdrawal petitions will merely relitigate the original sentencing proceeding.
I would affirm the decision below.