Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
No. 14-4418
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, at Raleigh.
Terrence W. Boyle,
District Judge. (5:12-cr-00353-BO-1)
Argued:
Decided:
PER CURIAM:
In November 2011, without a warrant, police surreptitiously
placed a GPS tracker on a car belonging to Christopher Wilson, a
person of interest in several robberies.
Information gathered
by
threats
and
violence,
possessing
firearm
in
use
of
the
GPS
tracker.
He
argued
that
United
The
in
superseding
criminal
information,
which
the
However, at
In
response,
the
district
court
strongly
and
repeatedly
The
your problem?
to make this choice, the court continued the hearing for two
weeks
so
that
Wilson
could
take
cooling
off
period
and
counsel
because
relationship,
of
which
the
breakdown
court
of
the
granted.
attorney-client
Four
months
later,
after Wilson had been appointed new counsel, the district court
conducted
failure,
the
no
continued
transcript
Rule
of
11
this
hearing.
hearing
Due
to
exists.
equipment
Pursuant
to
statement
of
the
proceedings
submitted
by
the
parties.
The
approved
(but
extremely
brief)
statement
describing
this second hearing does not indicate that the court informed
Wilson of his right to plead not guilty, his right to a jury
trial,
or
colloquy.
several
of
the
other
requirements
of
the
Rule
11
While
not
recall
being
informed
of
or
acknowledging
that
he
At
this
second
hearing,
Wilson
pleaded
guilty
to
four
original
counts
of
plea
bank
agreement
robbery.
in
After
that
the
it
contained
district
court
two
fewer
sentenced
but
discussions.
[t]he
court
must
not
participate
in
these
The prohibition on
it
the
possibility
protects
against
of
judicial
unfairness
coercion
and
of
partiality
it
guilty
in
the
neutral arbiter.
(4th Cir. 2006) (quoting United States v. Cannady, 283 F.3d 641,
64445 (4th Cir. 2002)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Because Wilson did not object to the judges involvement
during
the
plea
discussions,
we
review
his
claim
under
the
substantial
rights,
Wilson
must
show
reasonable
probability that, but for the error, he would not have entered
the plea.
2147 (2013).
seriously
affects
the
fairness,
integrity,
or
public
in
Wilsons
plea
discussions
the
third
and
affected
whether
the
error
whether
it
seriously
proceedings.
Because
fourth
prongs
Wilsons
affected
the
record
6
the
of
violated
error
substantial
integrity
lacks
Rule
any
review:
rights
of
and
judicial
indication
that
The judge
commented
evidence,
on
questioned
the
strength
Wilsons
reasons
of
the
for
Governments
proceeding
to
trial,
and
Thus, this
requir[ed]
guilty
or
go
Cannady
to
to
trial.
make
Instead,
decision
in
--
either
response
to
plead
Wilsons
rejection of the plea deal, the district court rebuked him and
ended the hearing.
was calm and cogent at the hearing, the judge expressly said
Wilson needed a cooling off period -- that is, a period during
which Wilson would change his mind and accept the plea deal.
When the second hearing occurred months later, Wilson did accept
a plea deal.
Importantly, in circumstances that are hopefully unique to
this
case,
ultimate
nothing
guilty
plea
in
the
was
record
voluntary.
establishes
Although
that
a
Wilsons
defendants
by
itself
dispel
[our]
concern
that
judicial
participation
11
colloquy
took
place,
let
alone
whether
Wilson
The hearing, as
at
mind
the
second
hearing,
he
changed
his
under
unknown
11 colloquy.
whether refusing to
United
States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 736 (1993) (quoting United States
v. Atkinson, 297 U.S. 157, 160 (1936)) (internal quotation marks
omitted).
This court has recognized that failure to notice [] [a]
clear Rule 11 error would almost inevitably seriously affect the
fairness and integrity of judicial proceedings.
F.3d
at
463.
This
is
unsurprising,
given
Bradley, 455
the
critical
negotiations],
impartiality
throughout
including
the
preserving
proceedings
and
the
judges
preventing
the
fairly
impartially
over
this
case.
However,
of
the
judge
that
will
determine
whether
the
at 465.
AFFIRMED IN PART AND VACATED AND REMANDED
10