Court Opinion

ID: 9482283
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:45:37.627027+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:53.060404
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Because I am of opinion that the facts surrounding Lambey’s entry and attempted withdrawal of his guilty plea constitute a “fair and just reason” for such withdrawal, and that under these circumstances the district court abused its discretion in denying the motion under Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(d), I respectfully dissent.
It is undisputed that Lambey’s trial counsel, while advising him to accept the government’s offer of a plea agreement, *139badly misstated the range of years of confinement to prison to which Lambey would be subject under the Sentencing Guidelines. Lambey’s counsel erroneously informed him that a plea of guilty under the agreement would result in a sentence of between 78 and 108 months. In fact, Lambey’s Guideline range of sentences was from 360 months to life, and he ultimately was sentenced to serve 360 months in prison, a term over three times longer than his counsel’s estimated maximum.
Lambey first became aware of his attorney’s error during a presentence interview with his probation officer, on December 4, 1989, five days after his guilty plea was entered, but before he was sentenced. Upon learning that he faced a substantially longer prison term than his attorney had led him to believe, Lambey immediately dispatched letters to his attorney and to the district court asking that he be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea and be tried by a jury. In his letter to the court Lambey stated that his guilty pleas were “ill advised, and made at a time of great stress.” Lambey’s counsel followed up this letter by filing formal motions to withdraw the pleas. These motions fully explained the deficiencies of his counsel’s earlier advice and the circumstances under which the pleas of guilty were entered. Prior to denying Lambey’s motions and imposing sentence, the district court received testimony and heard argument regarding his counsel’s erroneous advice. Lambey himself testified unequivocally that he would not have waived his right to trial by jury had he received proper advice regarding the range of prison terms that he faced. While the testimony of Lambey, of course, might be discounted, the other facts which are undisputed can not, and the district court was thus fully aware before sentencing of the circumstances surrounding Lambey’s guilty pleas and of his desire to be tried by a jury.1
My objection to the majority decision lies in the application of the standard governing motions to withdraw pleas of guilty. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32(d) allows the district court to permit a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea before sentence is imposed “upon a showing by the defendant of any fair and just reason.” If the defendant can establish such a reason, the degree to which the government would be prejudiced by the withdrawal of the plea becomes relevant to the district court’s decision as to whether to allow the withdrawal. See United States v. Pitino, 887 F.2d 42, 48-49 (4th Cir.1989); United States v. Haley, 784 F.2d 1218, 1219 (4th Cir.1986). When a defendant asserts poor or erroneous advice of his attorney as his reason for withdrawal, he must show that his attorney’s performance was below an objective standard of reasonableness and that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s error, he would have pleaded not guilty and insisted on going to trial. See United States v. DeFreitas, 865 F.2d 80, 82 (4th Cir.1989). In this case I am convinced that Lambey established a fair and just reason for withdrawing his plea. I have no doubt that his counsel’s very incorrect reading of the Sentencing Guidelines falls short of an objective standard of reasonableness. Further, his request to withdraw his guilty plea was promptly made, before sentencing, so it cannot be gainsaid that he did want a trial by jury. This is not the all too frequent case of an attempt to withdraw a guilty plea after sentencing.
When a defendant establishes a fair and just reason for withdrawal of the plea, it is proper to examine the extent to which the government would be prejudiced by the withdrawal. In this case the government would not have been prejudiced in the least. Lambey entered his guilty plea on *140November 29, 1989, and his motion to withdraw the plea was first received by the district court on December 20, 1989. The government’s ability to prosecute Lambey on the charges would not have been impaired in any way by allowing this withdrawal only a matter of weeks after the signing of the plea agreement. On the facts of this case, there simply was no valid reason for denying Lambey’s motion.
In the ordinary case in which a defendant attempts to withdraw a plea of guilty on the grounds that he was mistaken as to the consequences of the plea or of the legal rights waived by the plea, the fact that the plea was accepted only after a properly conducted Rule 11 hearing may well foreclose withdrawal of the plea. I submit, however, that this is far from an ordinary case and is one in which the effect of the Rule 11 colloquy should not be so broad.
As I have already suggested, this is not a case in which the defendant’s attorney made only a minor error in predicting his client’s exact sentence under the Guidelines. Rather, Lambey faced a range of sentences that at a minimum was three times greater than his attorney had informed him. When an attorney’s advice falls below an objective standard of reasonableness, as I would hold occurred here, I do not believe that the Rule 11 colloquy should prevent the defendant from withdrawing his plea of guilty and asserting his right to a jury trial.
The majority insists that the district court’s statements to Lambey at the Rule 11 hearing sufficiently warned him that his counsel’s estimates were not to be relied upon. P. 137. While it is true that the district court in a general manner informed Lambey that “no one ... [could] accurately predict” his sentence, the court simply did not inquire with any specificity into whether Lambey’s counsel had made any estimates. It is also incorrect to state that the “estimates of Lambey’s attorney were announced as only estimates on which Lam-bey could not rely.” P. 138. A review of the transcript, vol. 2, p. 115, indicates that the district judge did not mention the estimates of Lambey’s attorney, neither did he state that any such estimate could not be relied upon.2 Lambey later testified, and his testimony is corroborated by a document that was part of the sentencing table given to him by his attorney, plaintiff’s ex. II, that his attorney erroneously had informed him that the maximum sentence of 360 months to life did not apply to him, and consequently Lambey was under the impression at the Rule 11 hearing that the court’s admonition regarding that sentence did not apply to him. (Tr. Vol. 3, p. 20) When an attorney’s advice was so incorrect, as here, as to distort the defendant’s entire understanding of the significance of the Rule 11 colloquy, I would hold that the defendant is not thereby barred from withdrawing his plea.
It is of course true that the 1983 amendments to Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(d) have made the withdrawal of guilty pleas more difficult. However, this court wisely has heretofore avoided sweeping holdings that create unnecessarily inflexible rules regarding the circumstances under which a guilty plea may be withdrawn. Our desire to impart finality to criminal proceedings should not outweigh a defendant’s right to *141be tried by a jury when that right was waived under circumstances such as those present here.
Lambey had no one to turn to except his attorney, unless the probation officer is counted. The attorney admittedly gave Lambey incorrect advice of great magnitude, which mistake obviously was caught by the probation officer. Immediately upon being advised of the mistake, Lambey asked to have his plea withdrawn. This act and the documentary corroboration of the mistake of his attorney established beyond a doubt his good faith. Moreover, there was nothing else that Lambey could do at the time except seek to withdraw his plea. The effect of the majority decision is such that advice from the court as to the length of the maximum sentence “[a]nd that under guideline sentencing, no one can accurately predict what your sentence will be until such time as a presentence report has been made available to the court” (Tr. Vol. 2, p. 2) is to impose a per se rule, an impenetrable shield behind which the government can hide, and avoid even the great and admitted mistake of an attorney such as that which occurred here.
In my opinion this proceeding was so lacking in fairness that the guilty plea must be set aside. There is no doubt that but for the error of his attorney Lambey “would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.” United States v. DeFreitas, 865 F.2d 80, 82 (4th Cir.1989). Indeed Lambey attempted to do just that.
The Sentencing Guidelines, to put it mildly, have revolutionized sentencing. To construe them, however, as the majority does in this case, is to withdraw from the proceeding the element of fairness. I do not think they are meant to be construed, and neither is Criminal Rule 11 nor 32, to uphold an iron clad requirement of pleading blind in the face of admittedly grossly erroneous advice of an attorney. That is the result obtained here.
Accordingly, I would vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for entry of a new plea to the offenses charged,

. On December 29, 1989, nine days after the receipt of the first letter, the district court received from Lambey a second letter dated December 21, 1989, in which he stated that he had "no desire to withdraw [his] plea at this time.” However, this letter is of no significant consequence in my view of this case. No one other than the district court received a copy of the letter or was even aware of its existence until the day of the sentencing hearing, February 13, 1990. Notwithstanding Lambey’s second letter to the court, his motion to withdraw his plea was properly made or renewed by formal motion on February 12, 1990. The import of the February 12th motion cannot be misunderstood.

. The plea agreement itself, which Lambey signed, contains only warnings similar in their generality to those given by the district judge from the bench. That document provides, in relevant part:
The defendant is aware that his sentence has not yet been determined by the Court. He is also aware that any estimate of the probable sentencing range that he may have received from counsel, the government, or the probation office, is a prediction, not a promise, and is not binding on the government, the probation office, or the Court.
This language was obviously insufficient to put Lambey on notice that specific estimates provided him by his attorney were grossly understated. This paragraph states only that estimates are not binding on the government, the probation officer, or the court, and makes no attempt to suggest that such estimates cannot be relied upon by the defendant in deciding whether to waive his right to trial and plead guilty. The insertion of such boilerplate language is not a proper substitute for a searching inquiry by the district judge, when called upon as here, as to whether the defendant is laboring under a grave misunderstanding regarding the potential punishment that he faces.