UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE,
v.
PAOLO LO DUCA, APPELLANT

2d Cir. | 1960-01-21
Nos. 198, Docket 25863
274 F.2d 57 United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1960) Positive Treatment
Cited by 14 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the defendant's appeal regarding the voluntariness of his guilty plea and the excessiveness of his sentence was not properly before the court because required procedural motions were not made in the district court. The court also found no merit in the defendant's contentions.


Facts & Procedural History

The defendant pleaded guilty to unlawfully entering the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C.A. § 1325. He appealed his conviction and sentence, argu…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction and a sentence of six months’ imprisonment entered by District Judge J. Skelly Wright, sitting by designation in the Southern District of New York, for unlawfully entering the United States in such manner as to elude inspection by immigration officers in violation of 8 U.S.C.A. § 1325. The Court is alleged to have accepted defendant’s plea of guilty “without first determining that the plea is made voluntarily with understanding of the nature of the charge,” Fed.R.Crim.Proc. 11, 18 U.S.C. and the sentence, for the maximum imprisonment permitted by the statute, is claimed to be excessive and to have resulted in part from allegedly improper statements by the Assistant United States Attorney that offenses such as that to which LoDuca had pleaded guilty represented a large-scale abuse.

LoDuca did not move in the District Court to withdraw his plea of guilty as required by Fed.R.Crim.Proc. 32(d).

Consequently, although we might be able to consider the propriety of the Court’s accepting the plea on the appeal from an order denying such a motion or, it seems, on an appeal from an order denying an application to set aside the sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 even though no such motion was made, United States v. Davis, 7 Cir., 1954, 212 F. 2d 264; Floyd v. United States, 5 Cir., 1958, 260 F. 2d 910, certiorari denied, 1959, 359 U.S. 947, 79 S.Ct. 728, 3 L.Ed. 2d 680; Arnold v. United States, 4 Cir., 1959, 271 F. 2d 440; United States v. Von Der Heide, D.C.D.C.1959, 169 F.Supp. 560, the propriety of the Court’s action is not now properly before us. Apart from this, we find no merit in appellant’s contention. He had originally pleaded not guilty. Several days in advance of the date set for trial his experienced counsel, who had represented him when the not-guilty plea was entered, advised the Assistant United States Attorney that LoDuca intended to change his plea to guilty, and Judge Wright was so informed. The change of plea was made by defendant in the presence of his counsel; the charge was translated to defendant; and, after the plea, defendant was given an opportunity to make a statement, which he declined. While it would have been preferable for the judge to question the defendant to make certain that the plea of guilty was “made voluntarily with understanding of the nature of the charge,” a conviction based on such a plea will not be set aside for failure to comply with any set formula where, as here, defendant had counsel and all the circumstances show the plea was so made. Floyd v. United States, supra, and United States v. Von Der Heide, supra. Contrast Arnold v. United States, supra.

Moreover, the District Court surely would not have allowed the plea to be withdrawn unless defendant alleged that he was not guilty, United States v. Norstrand Corp., 2 Cir., 1948, 168 F. 2d 481; no such allegation has been made here and it is apparent that only the unexpected severity of the sentence has led to the desire for a change of plea.

With respect to the sentence also, no motion for reduction was made in the District Court under Fed.R.Crim. Proc.

35. Even if such a motion had been made and the case were before us on appeal from a denial, “The rule is well settled that a United States Court of Appeals is without power to review or revise a sentence which is within permissible statutory limits.” Roth v. United States, 2 Cir., 255 F. 2d 440, 441 certiorari denied, 1958, 358 U.S. 819, 79 S.Ct. 31, 3 L.Ed.2d 61, and cases cited. See also Gurera v. United States, 8 Cir., 1930, 40 F. 2d 338 and Kachnic v. United States, 9 Cir., 1931, 53 F. 2d 312; cf. Livers v. United States, 6 Cir., 1950, 185 F. 2d 807. If there be exceptions to this rule, this case surely is not one of them. We see no impropriety in the statement made by the Assistant United States Attorney, the sentence was for six months, and defendant failed to avail himself of his remedy under Fed.R.Crim. Proc. 35.

Judgment affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited (12 total)

View all 12 cited authorities →

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw