Class v United States Can a guilty plea
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Class v. United States Can a guilty plea implicitly waive a defendant’s right to challenge his conviction on constitutional grounds? Gregory G. Peterson January 23, 2018
Rodney Class: Not a typical defendant • Rod Class, “ 14 th Amendment Constitutional Bounty Hunter” and “Private Attorney General” • Sovereign Citizen beliefs • “Judgment for Resurrection of the Flesh and Blood Man RODNEY CLASS” • This case: does the sweeping nature of Class’s constitutional claim matter?
Guns, knives, and ammunition: lawfully owned, in a parked vehicle. . . but on government property, and possibly “readily accessible” in violation of 40 U. S. C. § 5104(3). This case Class proceeds pro se, with appointed standby counsel. He raises a Second Amendment claim on the gun charge, then refuses to participate in the case and does not appear for trial. After (naturally) being arrested again, he pleads guilty to the gun charge in return for the government dropping the failure-toappear charge. Plea agreement: no explicit waiver, but no explicit statement that appeal on constitutional grounds was imminent.
THE COURT: If you went to trial and you were convicted, you would have a right to appeal your conviction to the Court of Appeals and to have a lawyer help you prepare your appeal. Do you understand that? CLASS: Yes. THE COURT: Do you know what I mean by your right to appeal? CLASS: Yeah. Take it to the next court up. The colloquy THE COURT: All right. Now, by pleading guilty, you would be generally giving up your rights to appeal. Do you understand that? CLASS: Yes. THE COURT: Now, there are exceptions to that. You can appeal a conviction after a guilty plea if you believe that your guilty plea was somehow unlawful or involuntary or if there is some other fundamental defect in these guilty-plea proceedings. You may also have a right to appeal your sentence if you think the sentence is illegal. Do you understand those things? CLASS: Yeah. Pretty much. THE COURT: Now, if you plead guilty in this case and I accept your guilty plea, you’ll give up all of the rights I just explained to you, aside from the exceptions that I mentioned, because there will not be any trial, and there will probably be no appeal. Do you understand that? CLASS: Yes.
Knock-on effect So why does this matter? A “system of pleas, not a system of trials. ” Lafler v. Cooper, 566 U. S. 156, 170 (2012). Guilty pleas accounted for 80% of federal convictions in 1980; today, that number is 97%. At the state level, 70 -85% in 1970 has become 94% today. Fashioning a “default rule” No one is arguing that such waivers are impossible in general (or are they? ) Government assignment of prosecutorial resources “Open pleas” (25% of pleas, or roughly 18, 000 cases/yr)
No appeal on constitutional grounds for a defendant who pleads guilty: D. C. Cir. , 1 st Cir. , 10 th Circuit Split Such appeals are always allowed: 3 d Cir. , 5 th Cir. , 6 th Cir. , 9 th Cir. , 11 th Cir. Constitutional as-applied challenge not allowed, but constitutional facial challenge allowed: 4 th Cir. , 7 th Cir. , 8 th Cir.
Formalism vs. realism Gorsuch’s “ 150 years of history” v. Kagan’s note of Rule 11’s silence Sotomayor, Alito, the parties, and amici: hyper-practical Crafting a rule Power and capability vs. resources, information, and attention Who should have to do the work? What about a remand?
The last case of the first week of term: do the justices get fatigued? • Familiarity with the Court • Institutional considerations Advocates and Oral Argument Jessica Ring Amunson (Jenner & Block) Eric Feigin (Ass’t to the S. G. ) J. D. 2004, Garland clerk in 05 -06 J. D. 2005, Breyer clerk in October Term 2007 First argument before the Court First argued before SCOTUS in 2010 Fifteenth argument
