08-3538 Hutchings v. U.S.

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Criminal Procedure
Ineffective assistance; prejudice

Where a defendant cannot show that he would not have pleaded guilty but for his attorney’s bad advice, his ineffective assistance of counsel claim must fail.

“We are unpersuaded by the subjective evidence that Hutchings would have pled guilty but for Wertz’s guarantee of a sentence reduction. The objective evidence suggested by Hutchings is also unpersuasive. He points to the sentencing consequences he faced as objective evidence that he would have gone to trial absent Wertz’s bad advice. Hutchings’s choices were to go to trial, where if convicted he would have received a life sentence, or to plead guilty and receive a life sentence. Hutchings argues that it made no sense for him to plead guilty when doing so simply guaranteed a life sentence, no matter how minuscule his chances of acquittal at trial were.

Pleading guilty would make sense, however, if—as Hutchings alleges—Wertz told him that his choices were actually to either go to trial and all but guarantee a life sentence without parole, or plead guilty, receive an initial life sentence, but then one year later receive a reduced sentence under Rule 35.”

Affirmed.

08-3538 Hutchings v. U.S.

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