Motion to Draw Guilty Plea

Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea

I witnessed a case where the defendant entered guilty pleas to three misdemeanor charges theft, criminal damage to property and entry into a locked vehicle. The defendant was sentenced back in two thousand fifteen and, following sentencing, the defendant filed a notice of intent to pursue post conviction relief pursuant. The judge in this case name was Virginia Norton and this case took place at the Duval county Clerk of Court in Jacksonville Florida.

The defendant is not a citizen of the United States. During the court's guilty plea colloquy with the defendant the court failed to inform the defendant of the immigration consequences of a criminal conviction at the time The defendant entered his guilty pleas he did not know that the criminal convictions would subject him to deportation proceedings. The federal government has, in fact, started deportation proceedings against the defendant. That matter is set for final hearing in March, two thousand and sixteen.

The court did not warn the defendant of the immigration consequences of his guilty pleas and, therefore, the statute mandatorily requires the court to permit the defendant to withdraw his guilty pleas. When the defendant entered his guilty pleas the court did not give the defendant the mandatory statutory warning concerning the immigration consequences of a criminal conviction. The failure to give the statutory immigration warning makes the court's obligation to grant the defendant's motion to withdraw his plea is mandatory- regardless of whether the defendant can establish that the error was not harmless. Even if the defendant is required to show that the error was not harmless he is able to do so. The defendant would testify that at the time he entered his pleas he did not know that the convictions would cause him to be deported. He would not have entered the guilty pleas had he known this and, now, he is subject to deportation.

The defendant did not received the statutory that says If a court fails to advise a defendant as required by subject and a defendant later shows that the plea is likely to result in the defendant's deportation, exclusion from admission to this country or denial of naturalization, the court on the defendant's motion shall vacate any applicable judgment against the defendant and permit the defendant to withdraw the plea and enter another plea. This subsection does not limit the ability to withdraw a plea of guilty or no contest on any other grounds. Here, the transcript of the plea hearing establishes that the court did not warn the defendant of the immigration consequences of his guilty pleas. Thus, the plea colloquy was defective. Additionally, the defendant affidavit establishes that at the time he entered his guilty pleas he did not understand that the convictions could result in deportation. Moreover, the defendant is now the subject of deportation proceedings and, therefore, the motion is ripe.

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