We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
‘WE DIDN’T AGREE THAT YOU COULD WIN’
The government prefers one-sided plea agreements, but – as a decision last month reminded us – sometimes the U.S. Attorney overreaches.
(So why am I getting around to reporting this now, a month after the case was handed down? Vacation, county fair, August being August…)
Shelby Petties cut a deal in which the government agreed to drop two counts if he pled to having committed a crime of violence – kidnapping – while having failed to register as a sex offender. Shelby reserved the right to appeal on the ground that while he did the kidnapping, it is not categorically a crime of violence (COV).
Shelby appealed and won a ruling that kidnapping is not a COV. But when the case went back to the district court, the judge allowed the government to refile the dismissed charges against Shelby. The government’s view was that Shelby had agreed to plead guilty in order to appeal an issue that – if he won – the government could circumvent by undoing the agreement.
Shelby argued that the government’s view reduced the benefits he got from the plea agreement to zero. The 4th Circuit agreed.
“We give plea agreements greater scrutiny than we apply to ordinary commercial contracts,” the Circuit ruled, “because of the context: a defendant’s waiver of his constitutional right to trial, induced by the government’s commitments in the plea agreement.”
Here, Shelby gave up his right to go to trial on Count Two in exchange for the government’s promise to dismiss Counts One and Three and to “not further prosecute him for conduct constituting the basis” for the indictment. “The government entered into this agreement with full knowledge that Petties might appeal — and appeal successfully — his conviction on Count Two,” the Circuit held. “The possibility of a successful appeal was a contingency expressly contemplated by the parties and their agreement…”
United States v. Petties, Case No 21-4332, 2022 U.S.App.LEXIS 21158 (4th Cir., Aug 1, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root