People v. Jian Jing Huang

302 A.D.2d 90, 752 N.Y.S.2d 305, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12852
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 24, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 302 A.D.2d 90 (People v. Jian Jing Huang) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Jian Jing Huang, 302 A.D.2d 90, 752 N.Y.S.2d 305, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12852 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Rubin, J.

This Court is asked to vacate a plea on the ground that defense counsel made affirmative, material misrepresentations concerning defendant’s immigration status, thereby rendering counsel’s assistance ineffective. It is axiomatic that the ground advanced for vacating a negotiated plea must be an adverse consequence of entering into the negotiated plea agreement. As the federal detainer under which defendant remains in custody was issued prior to the entry of the plea and as there is no intimation that the detainer would have been vacated had defendant proceeded to trial, it is not merely a “collateral consequence” of the criminal proceedings (see People v Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 403); it is entirely unrelated to the disposition of the state prosecution. As it is not a consequence of actions taken in the course of state proceedings, it is completely beyond the control of the court system {id.) and immaterial to either the fairness of the plea agreement or the effectiveness of counsel’s representation.

Defendant, who was convicted of kidnapping, was granted a new trial on appeal (248 AD2d 73, lv denied 93 NY2d 875), culminating in the entry of a negotiated plea on October 21, 1999. Prior to entering into the plea agreement, defendant was erroneously advised by counsel that there was no Immigration and Naturalization Service detainer outstanding against him (as confirmed to defense counsel by the prosecutor). Supreme Court then pronounced sentence, imposing 2 to 6 years with credit for time served. As a result, defendant was subject to immediate release, having been incarcerated since his arrest on April 25, 1992, a period of 7V2 years. While the Department of Correction was processing defendant’s release papers, it was learned that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had lodged a detainer against defendant on June 29, 1999.

Defendant moved to vacate his plea (CPL 440.10 [1] [b], [h]) on the ground that he had agreed to plead guilty under a misapprehension of his immigration status. However, at the time defendant made this motion, judgment had not yet been entered on the sentence, rendering CPL 440.10 inapplicable by its terms. Thereafter, defendant moved to vacate his plea pursuant to CPL 220.60.

While CPL 220.60 only permits a motion to be interposed prior to the imposition of sentence, Supreme Court declined to [92]*92consign defendant to what it deemed to be a procedural void. The court held that “imposition of sentence” should be construed to include both the pronouncement of sentence and its subsequent incorporation into the judgment of conviction. However, the court’s precise basis for granting defendant’s motion to vacate his plea remains elusive. For the purposes of CPL 220.60, the court held that “defendant was personally defrauded” and, for the purposes of CPL 440.10, that counsel’s representation had been both “grossly ineffective” in misrepresenting a material fact to defendant and, alternatively, that judgment should be vacated in the interest of justice.

The People contend, as they did on the motion, that relief pursuant to CPL 440.10 is unavailable because the court had not yet entered a judgment of conviction and, in any event, because Supreme Court lacks authority to grant such relief in the interest of justice (People v Reyati, 254 AD2d 199, 200, lv denied 93 NY2d 856 [relief limited to ground specified in CPL 440.10 (1)]; see also People v Agero, 234 AD2d 94 [no authority to grant relief on general equitable grounds]). In addition, they argue that the discretion to vacate a guilty plea pursuant to CPL 220.60 (3) is unavailable because that provision specifically contemplates a motion made “[a]t any time before the imposition of sentence,” and not, as Supreme Court construed it, before the entry of judgment.

On appeal, defendant does not attempt to identify a particular statutory basis for the requested relief beyond the assertion that it is an “illogical, strained, and unfair interpretation of the law” to require a defendant to compel entry of judgment and pursue his postjudgment remedies pursuant to CPL 440.10. Defendant does not maintain, as an alternative ground for relief, that Supreme Court acted to correct a clerical error where “the corrections made after sentencing not only were evident from the record but also fully comported with the expectation of the court, the prosecutor and the defendant at the time sentence was imposed” (Matter of Campbell v Pesce, 60 NY2d 165, 169, citing People v Minaya, 54 NY2d 360, cert denied 455 US 1024; People v Wright, 56 NY2d 613). Defendant merely intimates that Supreme Court’s ruling can be justified on the ground that it vacated a judgment obtained by fraud or misrepresentation (see Matter of Lockett v Juviler, 65 NY2d 182, 186-187). On appeal, he contends that we “should affirm the lower court’s refusal to enforce a bargain predicated upon a material misrepresentation.”

The record contains nothing to impugn the good faith of either the prosecutor or defense counsel in conveying informa[93]*93tion to defendant concerning his immigration status. More significantly, the record does not reflect how defendant’s unawareness of the detainer lodged by the Immigration and Naturalization Service affected his expectations with respect to deportation. In particular, defendant has failed to demonstrate that the detainer made any substantive difference to his circumstances at the time he entered his plea so as to render counsel’s representation less than effective. In short, while defendant has established a misrepresentation, albeit inadvertent, he has failed to show that it is material to the interposition of his guilty plea.

As stated in People v Ford (86 NY2d at 402-403), “A trial court has the constitutional duty to ensure that a defendant, before pleading guilty, has a full understanding of what the plea connotes and its consequences (People v Harris, 61 NY2d 9, 19; Boykin v Alabama, 395 US 238, 244).” The Court continued (at 403), “Deportation is a collateral consequence of conviction because it is a result peculiar to the individual’s personal circumstances and one not within the control of the court system.” It concluded (at 403) that, as a general rule, it is unnecessary for the court to inform a defendant of the potential for deportation before accepting a guilty plea, and counsel’s failure to so advise a client does not constitute ineffective representation (at 404).

Defendant urges this Court to adopt the position taken by some federal courts that, under appropriate circumstances, affirmative misstatements by defense counsel as to a client’s immigration status may comprise ineffective assistance, a question not before the Court of Appeals in Ford and therefore not considered (id. at 405). However, defendant consistently maintains that “a material fact was directly misrepresented by defense counsel” and brings no case to this Court’s attention in which a negotiated plea has been vacated where its entry had absolutely no effect on the defendant’s immigration status (cf. United States v Khalaf, 116 F Supp 2d 210, 215-216 [D Mass] [plea entered on erroneous advice that defendant would not be deported]; United States v Corona-Maldonado, 46 F Supp 2d 1171, 1173 [D Kan] [same]; People v Correa, 124 Ill App 3d 668, 465 NE2d 507, affd 108 Ill 2d 541, 485 NE2d 307 [same]). In a case where the affirmative misrepresentation was

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Davis
104 P.3d 11 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2005)
People v. Mourad
13 A.D.3d 558 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
302 A.D.2d 90, 752 N.Y.S.2d 305, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-jian-jing-huang-nyappdiv-2002.