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The importance of being earnest (and timely) when complaining of a breached plea

By Douglas A. Berman

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, I cannot help but think of his classic play when reviewing the Supreme Court's work today in Puckett.  The fact that Puckett's case even made it to the Supreme Court was itself a comedy of errors: a poorly-written plea agreement; misbehavior by a defendant while awaiting sentencing; a failure by defense counsel to object to a possibly breached plea; a willingness by the government to concede a plea breach that was iffy, at best.  Add all this up, and one line from Justice Scalia's opinion for the Court captures why few should be surprised that Puckett did not prevail: "Given that [Puckett] obviously did not cease his life of crime, receipt of a sentencing reduction for acceptance of responsibility would have been so ludicrous as itself to compromise the public reputation of judicial proceedings...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 25, 2009 (boomark / email).