Court Opinion

ID: 9460590
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:55:13.828409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:41.864916
License: Public Domain

HAYS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I dissent.
The conduct of Leeson’s counsel was not so ineffective as to raise a constitutional issue. The circumstances of Lee-son’s conviction and sentence are not such “as to shock the conscience of the Court and make the proceedings a farce and mockery of justice,” the standard applied by this court in determining whether the assistance of counsel was constitutionally defective. United States v. Wight, 176 F.2d 376, 379 (2d Cir. 1949), cert. denied, 338 U.S. 950, 70 S. Ct. 478, 94 L.Ed. 586 (1950); United States v. Gonzalez, 321 F.2d 638, 639 (2d Cir. 1963); United States v. Miller, 254 *723F.2d 523, 524 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 868, 79 S.Ct. 100, 3 L.Ed.2d 100 (1958). Leeson’s attorney’s advice as to maximum sentence was not so “ ‘horribly inept’ as to amount to a ‘breach of his legal duty faithfully to represent his client’s interest’ . . . ” United States ex rel. Scott v. Mancusi, 429 F.2d 104, 109 (2d Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 909, 91 S.Ct. 1385, 28 L.Ed.2d 651 (1971) , quoting United States ex rel. Maselli v. Reincke, 383 F.2d 129, 132 (2d Cir. 1967).
“[E]rroneous advice by defense counsel as to sentence does not support attack under § 2255 unless it amounts to ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ .” United States v. Horton, 334 F.2d 153, 155 (2d Cir. 1964). See United States ex rel. LaFay v. Fritz, 455 F.2d 297 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 407 U.S. 923, 92 S.Ct. 2471, 32 L.Ed.2d 809 (1972); United States ex rel. Bullock v. Warden, 408 F.2d 1326 (2d Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1043, 90 S.Ct. 688, 24 L.Ed.2d 686 (1970).
The disappointment of an expectation fostered by an attorney’s inadvertence in advising or failing to advise a defendant as to a legal consequence of a guilty plea does not make the plea involuntary. United States ex rel. Scott v. Mancusi, supra; United States v. Caruso, 280 F.Supp. 371 (S.D.N.Y.1967), aff’d sub nom. United States v. Mauro, 399 F.2d 158 (2d Cir. 1968) (per curiam), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 904, 89 S.Ct. 1010, 22 L.Ed.2d 215 (1969); United States v. Parrino, 212 F.2d 919 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 840, 75 S.Ct. 46, 99 L. Ed. 663 (1954). When a defendant enters a guilty plea he waives his right to trial and “assumes the risk of ordinary error in either his or his attorney’s assessment of the law and facts.” McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 774, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 1450, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970).
Section 2254 relief should be denied.