Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Be Careful What You Agree To
Imagine the following scenario: You have been charged in federal court with one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. After reviewing the prosecutor's evidence against you, you decide that it is in your best interest to plead guilty to the one count that you have been charged with. Your lawyer then obtains a written plea agreement from the U.S. Attorney's Office which requires you to admit that you are, in fact, guilty of conspiring to distribute crack cocaine. Towards the end of the plea agreement, however, is a paragraph that also requires you to admit that you engaged in money laundering even though you have not been charged with committing that particular crime.
So what you may ask? You haven't been charged with money laundering; therefore, there's no harm in admitting that you engaged in that activity as part of the conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Wrong!
Section 1B1.2(c) of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines states that "[a] plea agreement (written or made orally on the record) containing a stipulation that specifically establishes the commission of additional offense(s) shall be treated as if the defendant had been convicted of additional count(s) charging those offense(s)." In other words, by admitting in your plea agreement that you engaged in money laundering, the judge who will later sentence you will treat it is as if you had been formally charged and convicted of money laundering even though that is not the case at all. More importantly, the amount of prison time that you are facing may well increase because of your inadvertent admission to money laundering.
That is precisely what happened in the case of United States v. Miller. In that case, Mr. Miller was originally charged with committing the two crimes of transporting computer visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possession of computer disks containing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He eventually pled guilty to both crimes. However, in his plea agreement he also stipulated that he had used email to solicit teenage boys to engage in sexual activity.
Several weeks after pleading guilty, Miller learned for the first time that the amount of prison time he was facing was substantially more than what he had originally thought it would be because of the emails he had sent. Miller objected to this increase saying that these emails were not part of the crimes he had pled guilty to because they did not occur during either the preparation of his crimes or in the actual commission of them.
The appellate court hearing Miller's case rejected these arguments in part because of the stipulation contained in his plea agreement combined with the language contained in Section 1B1.2(c) of the Federal Guidelines.
The lesson to be learned, of course, is that someone who is considering pleading guilty to a federal crime should be concerned not only about the actual crime he is pleading guilty to but also about any additional facts that he is considering agreeing to as part of the plea agreement.
I HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH ALIEN SMUGGLING. THE PROSECUTOR WANTS ME TO ENTER A PLEA OF GUILTY BEFORE ALLOWING TESTIMONY I HAVE TO OFFER AS A PART OF MY COOPERATION WITH THE GOVERNMENT.SHOULD I EXPECT TO BE SCREWED OR IS THIS CUSTOMERY? WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD I BE ASKING TO PROTECT MYSELF? SHOULD I GIVE UP MY RIGHT TO APPEAL IN ORDER TO GET THAT EXTRA LEVEL?
Attorney Chapman's response:
Most federal prosecutors that I have dealt with are willing to speak with my clients before they plead guilty. You may want to ask your lawyer to check on whether it is customary for the prosecutor handling your case to do things in this way.
Should you give up your right to appeal in order to get the third-level reduction in sentence? The rule governing the procedure whereby you receive a third-level reduction
does not require that you give up your right to appeal. However, there may be other reasons why you should consider giving up your right to appeal. I don't know enough about your case, however, to tell you whether I think it's a good idea for you to give up that right.
I have a friend who was charged with conspiracy and a felony gun charge. He was facing a life sentence but was offered a plea of 27 years which included an enhancement of 10 years due to having two prior felonies on his record. Of course this time does not include any reductions with his ability to cooperate but I was just wondering if this was a fair plea?
Attorney Chapman's response:
If it was likely that your friend would have been convicted and sentenced to life in prison had he gone to trial, then accepting a plea offer of 27 years may have been the wise thing for him to do.
But if he had a decent chance of being found not guilty at trial, then a plea offer of 27 years was not good at all.
My brother's been charged with possession and attempt to distribute 50k powder cocaine. Depending on the evidence feds have against him, should he plead guilty with co-operation?? what's the maximum and minimum he is looking at as far as jail time is concerned.
Attorney Chapman's response:
Whether your brother should plead guilty depends upon the strength of the prosecutor's case. I can't answer your question before thoroughly reviewing his case.
The maximum/ minimum amount of jail time he's facing depends in part on his criminal history record which I would also need to review prior to answering your question.
Hello? My name is demetrius manassa i just wanted to ask u a question about my case.I was indicted in the district of vermont for conspricy to distribute 50 grams or more of crack cocaine and i already plead guilty but my plea agreament read that i distrubuted 500 to 1.5 kg of crack cocaine but the goverment have no kind of prove to show that i distrubuted that amount of drugs. My question to u is, is there any kind of way that i can get a new plea agrement?
Attorney Chapman's response:
According to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(e),
"[a]fter the court imposes sentence, the defendant may not withdraw a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, and the plea may be set aside only on direct appeal or collateral attack."