United States Ninth Circuit

In a criminal appeal arising from a district court's refusal to accept a conditional guilty plea, a petition for writ of mandamus challenging the refusal is denied but the matter is remanded for reassignment to a new judge to reconsider the conditional plea where: 1) under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2) the district court had discretion to withhold its consent to the conditional guilty plea; 2) the district court exercised its discretion to reject the plea; but 3) the district court erred by reviewing the Presentence Report (PSR) before rejecting defendant's conditional plea.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/02/2008
• Decided 11/13/2008
• Published 11/13/2008

Judges

• McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:, Before:  M. MARGARET McKEOWN and CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges, and OTIS D. WRIGHT, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Stephen R. Hormel (argued), Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho, Spokane, WA, for the petitioner., Joseph H. Harrington (argued), Assistant United States Attorney;  James A. McDevitt, United States Attorney, Spokane, WA, for the real party in interest.