Understanding the Conditions to Withdraw a Plea
Can I withdraw my plea of guilty from a previous conviction in the state of Oklahoma? Hi, I’m Oklahoma City Attorney Aaron Easton, and that’s the question we have before us today. So in a previous video, I do discuss the fact that the United States Supreme Court has said you have a constitutional right to withdraw your plea if it wasn’t both knowing and voluntary.
So today I want to discuss what does knowing and voluntary actually mean, because there’s a legal definition for it that might not go exactly with what we think from a layperson’s perspective. And so the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the United States, in a case called United States v. Howard, has set out a two-pronged test to determine when you might be able to withdraw your plea for it not being knowing and voluntary, and the two parts of that test are one, the appellant or petitioner must allege facts which, if they were true, would entitle him to relief, and two, the record of the case cannot conclusively show that he is entitled to no relief.
What Does Knowing and Voluntary Mean in the Context of Withdrawing a Guilty Plea?
It’s a very broad definition, and it’s meant to be that way because it gives the court the ability to look at the specifics of each case to make that determination, and I should mention that the court that put out that two-pronged test did derive it directly from Title 28 of the United States Code, Section 2255. The court, the Howard court, did go on to define what competence means in this setting for the withdrawal of a plea that’s knowing and voluntary, and they said, quote, the ability to understand the proceedings and to assist counsel in preparing a defense. If you meet those kind of pretty low criteria, they’d say you did, in fact, put in a knowing and voluntary plea, so they would not allow an evidentiary hearing if the, essentially, the transcripts of the case show, you know, there’s no argument here. Your plea was knowing and voluntary.
If you think you’re in a circumstance where the plea you entered was not knowing and voluntary, you had some misinformation or a strong fundamental misunderstanding of what you were pleading to, and you think you are a candidate to withdraw that plea, you’re going to want to speak to an attorney privately and confidentially about the specifics of your case.
Contact Us for a Initial Consultation
To speak to somebody at my firm, you can contact us by phone at 405-888-5400 for a initial consultation, or find us online at postconviction.lawyer.