Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Violation – Rule 11

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Cory L. Williams v. United States of America

Case No.: 16-3715

Officials: EASTERBROOK, KANNE, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Violation – Rule 11

Cory Williams was charged with two counts of Hobbs Act robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a); one count of bank robbery, id. § 2113(a), (d); and three counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of those crimes, id. § 924(c). On the § 924(c) counts alone, he faced a statutory minimum of 57 years in prison, the equivalent of a mandatory life sentence. The government offered a favorable plea deal that promised to reduce his sentencing exposure by more than 39 years. After sending the terms to Williams’s attorney, the prosecutor emailed the proposal to Judge McCuskey pursuant to the judge’s standard practice. The judge replied by email, telling the parties that the deal was “exceedingly fair” and “[o]nly a fool would refuse [it].” Williams took the deal and pleaded guilty. The judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison in accordance with the agreement.

A year later Williams moved to set aside his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. As relevant here, he claimed that the judge impermissibly participated in plea negotiations in violation of Rule 11(c)(1) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Due Process Clause. He also alleged a deprivation of his Sixth Amendment right to effective representation based on his lawyer’s failure to raise the Rule 11(c)(1) violation and request the judge’s recusal. A newly assigned judge denied the motion without a hearing.

We affirm. Rule 11(c)(1) flatly forbids any judicial participation in plea negotiations, but the violation in this case was harmless. Williams insists that he would not have taken the plea deal but for the judge’s email, but that claim is not remotely plausible. The government’s case was rock solid, and the plea deal removed the risk of a mandatory life sentence and otherwise substantially reduced Williams’s prison exposure. His attorney’s failure to raise the Rule 11(c)(1) violation and request the judge’s recusal was likewise harmless.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.