United States v. Marks

890 F. Supp. 2d 248, 2012 WL 4009692, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130825
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 12, 2012
DocketNo. 03-CR-6033L
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 890 F. Supp. 2d 248 (United States v. Marks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Marks, 890 F. Supp. 2d 248, 2012 WL 4009692, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130825 (W.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

DAVID G. LARIMER, District Judge.

Defendant Chad Marks (“Marks”) was convicted on multiple counts after a jury trial and was sentenced by the Court principally to a term of forty years imprisonment. The forty-year sentence was the minimum sentence permitted. Marks was convicted of drug trafficking charges, which provided for a ten-year minimum sentence, and two separate counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking crimes, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Marks received a consecutive five-year term on the first § 924(c) conviction and a twenty-five-year consecutive term on the second.

Prior to sentencing, Marks filed a pro se motion (Dkt. #301). This motion was styled as a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and was filed in reply to the Government’s Opposition (Dkt. #295) to two earlier motions filed by Marks’s counsel, Donald Thompson (“Thompson”). In the Government’s Opposition, Assistant United States Attorney Everardo A. Rodriguez (“AUSA Rodriguez”) discussed at length the chronology of the prosecution, and Rodriguez stated in his recitation that, prior to trial, he had suggested to Thompson that Marks take a guilty plea “to a straight 20 years (without any additional reduction for cooperation).” (Government’s Opposition, Dkt. # 295, at 15-16).

The essence of Marks’s pro se motion was his claim that attorney Thompson provided ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment for failing to advise Marks of the twenty-year plea offer that was allegedly extended to Thompson by AUSA Rodriguez. Marks claims that his attorney never advised him of that offer and suggests that, had he known of it, he would have accepted it. This Coxxrt, [250]*250however, declined to entertain the pro se motion prior to sentencing.

Marks appealed this Court’s judgment and, by decision filed October 19, 2010, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the conviction in all respects but remanded the case for a further factual finding on what it characterized as Marks’s Fed. R. Crim. P. 38 motion for a new trial based on alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. See United States v. Brown, 623 F.3d 104, 115 (2d Cir.2010). The Second Circuit directed this Court to hold a hearing to determine whether Thompson conveyed the twenty-year plea offer to Marks and “whether Marks would likely have accepted that offer had it been made to him.” Id.

On June 16, 2011, this Court conducted a hearing on the remand. During the hearing, the Court took testimony from Thompson and defendant Marks, and received into evidence an affidavit from AUSA Rodriguez (Dkt. #295). In addition, an exhibit (Ex. 1) was received which consisted of the numerous handwritten letters Marks had written to Thompson during the several years the action was pending.1

The Second Circuit also directed this Court to determine whether Marks’s late filing of the Rule 33 motion was the product of “excusable neglect.” However, at the hearing the Government conceded that it did not contest that Marks’s untimely filing was due to excusable neglect.2

At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court granted Marks and the Government time to obtain the transcript of the hearing and file post-hearing memoranda. Thereafter, the Court allowed the parties to delay their filings upon learning that the United States Supreme Court had granted certiorari in two separate cases which both raised issues relating either to counsel’s failure to communicate a plea offer to a defendant or failed to give proper advice about accepting a plea offer. On March 21, 2012, the Supreme Court decided both of those cases. See Missouri v. Frye, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 1399, 182 L.Ed.2d 379 (2012) and Lafler v. Cooper, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 1376, 182 L.Ed.2d 398 (2012). Thereafter, both Marks and the Government filed memoranda discussing the evidence at the hearing as well as the two recently decided Supreme Court decisions (Dkt. ## 403, 405, 406).

DISCUSSION

Marks claims he received ineffective assistance of counsel because of counsel’s failure to advise him of a twenty-year plea offer. In its decision remanding the case, the Second Circuit set forth the well-established Strickland standards for determining whether a defendant has received ineffective assistance of counsel.

The legal standards applicable to Marks’s ineffective assistance claim are well-established. A defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel is violated [251]*251when he receives ineffective assistance. To prove such ineffective assistance, a defendant must show: (1) “that counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness”; and (2) “that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.”

Brown, 623 F.3d at 112 (quoting Pham v. United States, 317 F.3d 178, 182 (2d Cir.2003), and Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)).

Marks, now moving under Fed.R.CrimP. 33, has the burden of proof under the Strickland test of establishing that his attorney’s representation fell below the standard of reasonableness and that but for that error, the result of the proceeding would have been different.

The two recent Supreme Court decisions, Missouri v. Frye, supra, and Lafler v. Cooper, supra, set forth the requisite burden of proof that a defendant must meet to establish an ineffective-assistance claim relating to a failure to communicate a plea offer. To show prejudice from ineffective assistance of counsel based on counsel’s failure to communicate a plea offer, the defendant “must demonstrate a reasonable probability [he] would have accepted the earlier plea offer” had he known about it. Frye, 132 S.Ct. at 1409. See also, Lafler, 132 S.Ct. at 1385.

Based on the Second Circuit’s remand decision, the Strickland standards, and the recent Supreme Court rulings, the issues before the Court are clear: the Court must determine (1) whether the Government did in fact offer Thompson a twenty-year plea offer; (2) whether Marks’s eounsel, Thompson, ever conveyed that offer to Marks; and, importantly, (3) whether Marks would have accepted that plea deal at the time it was offered by the Government in May 2004, over two years before commencement of the trial.

After reviewing all the evidence, I find that AUSA Rodriguez did suggest to Marks’s attorney, Thompson, that Marks resolve the pending charges by pleading guilty with a set, agreed-upon sentence of twenty years imprisonment with no ability by Marks or his counsel to seek a reduction based on Marks’s alleged cooperation. This discussion occurred in May 2004. In his affidavit, (Dkt. # 295, pp. 15-16), AUSA Rodriguez concedes that he raised the possibility of such a plea.

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Related

United States v. Marks
561 F. App'x 42 (Second Circuit, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
890 F. Supp. 2d 248, 2012 WL 4009692, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130825, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-marks-nywd-2012.