United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's guilty plea and sentence are vacated and remanded with instructions for reassignment to a different judge, where: 1) when a court goes beyond providing reasons for rejecting the plea agreement presented, and comments on the hypothetical agreements it would or would not accept, it crosses over the line established by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 and becomes involved in the negotiations; and 2) the district court here participated in the parties plea discussions by prematurely committing itself to a sentence of a specific severity, and its participation prejudiced the defendant, where there was a reasonable probability that he would not have agreed to the terms of the second plea agreement absent the district court's remarks.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/30/2013
• Published 10/30/2013

Judges

• MARSHALL

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel