Court Opinion

ID: 9486439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:47:58.642703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:43.391930
License: Public Domain

LEAVY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent. The court placed the defendant under oath and inquired of him about his age, education, mental condition, use of drugs, satisfaction with the service of his attorney, explained to him the maximum penalties, asked about promises or inducements of any kind, and reviewed the factual basis for his plea. The defendant pleaded guilty to each count. The record then shows:
THE COURT: All right. It is the finding of the Court in the case of United States versus Gastelum that the defendant is fully competent and capable of entering an informed plea, that his plea of guilty to each count is a knowing and voluntary plea supported by an independent basis in fact. It contained each of the essential elements of the offense. Your plea is, therefore, accepted, and you are now judged guilty of the offense.
MS. SERVATIUS [Assistant United States Attorney]: Your Honor, before we do that, it would seem that there are certain constitutional rights that weren’t discussed. The right to confront witnesses, et cetera.
THE COURT: That is right.
BY THE COURT:
Q. Let me go back, Mr. Gastelum, and review with you some constitutional and statutory rights that you have and will be giving up in the entering of these pleas, and I want to be sure that you understand them.
You have a right to a public and speedy trial, which means that 12 people from the community will be brought here, that you and your attorney will have the ability to participate in the selection of those persons to assure their lack of bias. In that process of selecting the jury, those jurors, once they are selected, will be told that you have a privilege against self-incrimination, which means you don’t have to say anything at the trial, you don’t have to take the witness stand, that that cannot be held against you. The jury will be instructed that you never *1001have the duty to prove anything, and that the government is always under the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty. By entering a plea of guilty, as you have done now, you are giving up those rights and additional rights that I’m going to explain to you. Do you understand those rights?
A [defendant]. Yes.
Q. And you are willing to give those rights I have just explained?
THE REPORTER: I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the answer.
(Mr. Pedowitz and his client conferred off the record with the aid of the interpreter.)
BY THE COURT:
Q. All right. At the trial, the government is required to call witnesses, produce evidence against you which you could challenge by cross-examining those witnesses through your attorney. You would also be able to bring any evidence forward that you had. You call witnesses. If those witnesses wouldn’t come voluntarily, the Court would subpoena those witnesses for you. You are also giving up those rights, Mr. Gastelum.
Finally, with respect to the conduct of the trial, as I have told you, the jury would have to agree unanimously before you can be found guilty. That means all 12 persons have to agree on your guilt, or, for that matter, your innocence, before there can be a verdict, and you will be, by having entered these pleas of guilty, giving up those additional rights. Do you understand that?
A Yes.
Q. And are you willing to waive those rights?
A. Yes, I am willing.
THE COURT: All right. At this time, then, I think all that remains is for the defendant to surrender. Let’s have him surrender this afternoon.
MR. PEDOWITZ [defendant’s attorney]: Fine. He’s prepared to surrender now if the Court would like.
ER 11-15.
Rule 11(c) does not require that the defendant be informed of his rights before he enters a guilty plea but, instead, requires that the court inform the defendant of his rights before it accepts the plea. Even though the court said “[y]our plea is ... accepted” before it advised him of his rights, the record demonstrates that when the court concluded by saying, “All right. At this time, then, I think all that remains is for the defendant to surrender,” it accepted the pleas.
If there was any variance from the procedures required by Rule 11, it did not affect substantial rights and, in the words of Rule 11(c), should be disregarded. I would affirm the judgment.