United States v. Adams

Defendant plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. On appeal, defendant contended that his plea should be vacated because the district court violated Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 when it failed to inquire during the plea allocution about the possible impact of his heart condition and medications had on his ability to enter a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary plea. Defendant made no effort to have his asserted misunderstanding of the proceedings or the consequences of his plea corrected in the two years prior to sentencing or in an otherwise timely manner. Only when he did not receive the below-Guidelines sentence he had hoped for did defendant raise for the first time on appeal his claim. The court concluded that the district court did not plainly err in regards to the guilty plea where plaintiff failed to demonstrate any reasonable probability that he would not have pleaded guilty, or that the judge would not have accepted his plea, if the district court had inquired about his medical condition or medications. Even assuming that the appeal waiver is unenforceable, the court concluded that defendant's challenge to his sentence was without merit where defendant's sentence was substantively reasonable. The court rejected defendant's remaining claims and affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Adams" on Justia Law