Court Opinion

ID: 9462637
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:46:23.707868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:41.886301
License: Public Domain

FIELD, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially):
I concede, albeit reluctantly, that recognition of Edwards v. Garrison, 529 F.2d 1374 (No. 74-1791, 4 Cir. 1975), as viable precedent supports the reversal in this case. It occurs to me, however, that over the past few years this court has written a “Looking-glass book” 1 in this area.
It began with the decision in Walters v. Harris, 460 F.2d 988 (4 Cir. 1972). In that case a federal defendant filed a § 2255 motion alleging that he had entered his guilty plea upon the promise of a government attorney that would receive a sentence which was lighter than that ultimately imposed by the court. Although the record disclosed that the defendant had assured the court that no promise had been made to induce his guilty plea, the panel stated “that the defendant’s responses alone to a general Rule 11 inquiry cannot be considered conclusive evidence that no bargaining has occurred,” 460 F.2d at 993, and remanded the case to the district court for an evidentiary hearing. Conceding that its conclusion placed us in conflict with at least four other circuits,2 the panel held that the charge of involuntariness was not refuted by the defendant’s denial at arraignment that any promise had induced his plea.
Two years after Harris we again had occasion to consider this question in Crawford v. United States, 519 F.2d 347 (4 Cir. 1975). In that case we affirm the district court’s dismissal of the § 2255 motion, stating:
“Accordingly, we adopt the rule that the accuracy and truth of an accused’s statements at a Rule 11 proceeding in which his guilty plea is accepted are ‘conclusively’ established by that proceeding unless and until he makes some reasonable allegation why this should not be so. Stated otherwise, we hold that a defendant should not be heard to controvert his Rule 11 statements in a subsequent § 2255 motion unless he offers a valid reason why he should be permitted to depart from the apparent truth of his earlier statement.” 519 F.2d, at 350.
This encouraging pronouncement in Crawford was short-lived for less than three months later we handed down our decision in the consolidated cases of Edwards v. Garrison (No. 74-1791) and Bass v. United States (74-2038), pub. sub nom. Edwards v. Garrison, 529 F.2d 1373.
Edwards involved a state prisoner who charged that his guilty plea was induced by a promise made by his counsel with respect to the sentence he would receive despite the fact that he had affirmed to the court that no promises had been made. The panel held that an evidentiary hearing was required on the issue of voluntariness and, referring to the decision in Walters v. Harris, supra, stated:
“Although Walters was a federal prisoner prosecuted in a federal court and Edwards is a state prisoner prosecuted in a state court, the same reasoning applies. In either case the unallayed apprehensions of the accused make general inquiries about inducements unreliable in unearthing plea bargains. Not having been asked if he claimed that a plea bargain *899had been made, Edwards’ denial, at the time he entered his plea, that any promise had induced him to tender it does not foreclose inquiry into his later allegation suggesting that a plea bargain may have been made.” 529 F.2d, at 1377.
The opinion in Edwards concluded with the observation that the decision was of limited precedential significance since the court had been advised that the state practice had been amended to pose “questions to the prosecutor, the accused, and his lawyer designed to elicit a full disclosure of any plea negotiations and any bargain that was reached.” 529 F.2d at 1378.
Any conclusion that specific inquiry relative to a possible plea bargain might be the touchstone to finality in such a case was quickly dissipated, however, by the panel’s disposition of the Bass case in the same opinion. In Bass, the record disclosed that prior to accepting the guilty plea the district judge had advised the defendant that the Supreme Court had approved the practice of plea bargaining, that a plea bargain was proper and that if any bargains had been made Bass “should have no hesitancy” in revealing such information to the court. In response to the court’s inquiry, the attorney for Bass stated that in return for the guilty plea the government had promised to recommend a three year sentence. The district court went on to explain that it would not be bound by the government’s recommendation and could in fact impose whatever sentence it felt would be necessary up to the statutory maximum. Bass stated that he understood this fact and persisted in his plea. Despite these representations to the court, in his § 2255 motion Bass alleged that the prosecutor and his lawyer assured him that the government’s recommendation would be binding on the court and that his lawyer advised him to suppress his truthful answer that he did not wish to plead guilty if the district court would not treat the government’s recommended sentence as binding on it. The panel held that despite the thorough inquiry of the district court with respect to a possible plea bargain, Bass “may now be heard to controvert those statements and to seek to establish that he gave those answers solely on the advice of his lawyer to the end that his plea was not voluntarily and understandingly made and should be stricken.” 529 F.2d, at 1379.
A distillation of these decisions demonstrates to me that no matter how searching the inquiry of the court may be on the issue of voluntariness, no trial judge, state or federal, can protect himself against a later complaint by a convicted criminal that his plea was involuntarily entered by reason of some covert promise or understanding dehors the record. It is disturbing to note that all too often the convicted petitioner in such a case alleges that he was advised by his attorney to give false answers to the questions propounded by the court, and our opinions have unfortunately recognized such a charge as a valid allegation which can only be resolved by an evidentiary hearing.3 I suggest that the dignity and weight which we accord such irresponsible allegations is utterly unrealistic, for to me it is inconceivable that any attorney in his right mind would jeopardize his professional reputation and his license to practice law by engaging in such conduct.4
Additionally, in many cases presently coming before this court from state prisoners, the petitioner has vouched not only orally, but has confirmed in writing under oath that no improper influence or promise has accounted for his plea. Nevertheless, *900merely on the prisoner’s allegations, we permit the solemn record and act of the trial court to be impugned. Stripped of all euphemism, the plain truth is that these petitioners either lied to the trial judge at the time they entered their guilty pleas, or they are later lying to the federal court in an attempt to overthrow their convictions. I can discern no middle ground, and in effect we reward them for this self-admitted mendacity by ordering an evidentiary hearing.
I do not believe I am alone in the observation that the once Great Writ has been badly abused in the federal courts over the past decade, and I fear that we have unwittingly encouraged such abuse by our decisions in cases such as this.

. “Why, it’s a Looking-glass book, of course! And, if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again.”
The.Annotated Alice — Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll— p. 191, Bramwall House, 1960.

. Pursley v. United States, 391 F.2d 224 (5 Cir. 1968); Norman v. United States, 368 F.2d 645 (3 Cir. 1966); Putnam v. United States, 337 F.2d 313 (10 Cir. 1964); United States v. Davis, 319 F.2d 482 (6 Cir. 1963).

. In distinguishing the Bass case from the earlier decision in Crawford, the Edwards panel stated:
“In suggesting reasons why in unusual cases a federal prisoner should be permitted to controvert his statements at arraignment, we said '[h]e may have been advised to give answers that the court would require in order to accept the plea, rather than those which reñected the truth.’ 519 F.2d at 351. Bass has alleged just that. It follows that he must be given the opportunity to prove his allegations in a plenary hearing.” (Emphasis added), 529 F.2d, at 1380.

. It is significant that in a great number of these cases the attorney charged with such conduct was performing a public service to the court by acting as appointed counsel for the defendant.