United States Ninth Circuit
Garcia-Aguilar v. US Dist. Court for the S. Dist. of California, 07-70293, 07-71177, 07-71408
READ
Petitions for writ of mandamus challenging a district court's refusal to accept defendants' unconditional guilty pleas to their original indictments are granted where: 1) defendants showed clear error by the district court that "manifests a persistent disregard" of both Rule 11(b) and prior circuit case law; 2) it appeared to be an "oft-repeated error"; 3) the petitions raised "new and important" issues regarding district judges' authority to reject guilty pleas heard by magistrate judges; and 4) a direct appeal was inadequate to remedy the error because requiring defendants to go to trial on the superseding indictments and obtain a final judgment would require them to suffer "the prejudice of [an] additional, and unnecessary, financial and emotional burden."
Appellate Information
- Argued 10/17/2007
- Decided 08/06/2008
- Published 08/06/2008
Judges
- KOZINSKI, Chief Judge:, Before: ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, Circuit Judge, and ROBERT E. JONES, District Judge.
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- David J. Zugman and John C. Lemon, San Diego, CA, for petitioner Guillermo Garcia-Aguilar., Zandra L. Lopez, San Diego, CA, and Michelle Betancourt, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., San Diego, CA, for petitioner Erick Manjarrez-Cervantez., Zandra L. Lopez, San Diego, CA, and Shaffy Moeel, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., San Diego, CA, for petitioner Fredis Avilio Mejia-Lemus., Roger W. Haines, Jr., and Christopher A. Ott, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, San Diego, CA, for the United States, the real party in interest.