U.S. v. Benton
| Decision Date | 28 April 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 07-4211.,07-4211. |
| Citation | 523 F.3d 424 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Cedric Lee BENTON, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
States Attorney, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Before WILKINSON and GREGORY, Circuit Judges, and PATRICK MICHAEL DUFFY, United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina, sitting by designation.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge GREGORY and Judge DUFFY joined.
Cedric Lee Benton pled guilty to a felony conspiracy charge, and the district court sentenced him pursuant to his plea. Benton now appeals, arguing that the district court erred in not allowing him to withdraw his plea as a matter of right because the magistrate judge was not entitled to accept it. After careful consideration, we reject Benton's claim and affirm the judgment of the district court.
During January 2005, law enforcement officials conducted several controlled purchases of cocaine base from Cedric Lee Benton. These purchases led to Benton's arrest. Benton subsequently revealed his source for cocaine, Daryl Mills, and assisted in a controlled purchase that led to Mills's arrest. On April 25, 2005, Benton and Mills were charged in a nine-count indictment alleging possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and a related conspiracy charge.
On May 3, Benton made his first appearance in court on his indictment. On this date, a magistrate judge explained Benton's charges to him and outlined potential sentencing ranges that he faced.
Subsequently, on July 7, Benton and the government reached a plea agreement. Benton agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for the government's dismissal of the substantive possession counts he faced. In his plea agreement, Benton agreed to allow a "duly-qualified federal Magistrate Judge" to perform his plea "hearing required by Fed.R.Crim.P. 11." Benton also stipulated to the fact that there was a factual basis for the plea, and agreed to defer the court's confirmation of this stipulation until sentencing.
A little over a week later, on July 15, Benton appeared before a magistrate judge for a plea hearing. At the colloquy, Benton again affirmatively consented to a magistrate judge performing his plea hearing and accepting "a guilty plea that cannot later be withdrawn." JA 51. Benton also stated that he understood the charges against him and the penalties he faced if convicted. The prosecutor then recited the terms of Benton's plea agreement, correctly recounting the potential range of Benton's prison sentence (20 years to life). The prosecutor stated erroneously, however, that Benton could be subjected to "no more than five years supervised release," even though Benton actually faced a mandatory minimum of ten years supervised release. The court did not correct this error made by the government.
Following the prosecutor's recital of the plea agreement, Benton confirmed that he understood the terms of his plea, and that he was satisfied with the services of his lawyer. The magistrate judge then accepted Benton's plea, finding it to be both knowing and voluntary.
One month after Benton's guilty plea was accepted, Benton's counsel, Charles Morgan, filed a motion to withdraw his representation, citing "irreconcilable differences." Within a month, he withdrew this motion. Eight months later, in May 2006, Morgan again filed a motion to withdraw. Almost simultaneously, Benton wrote a letter to the district court raising a litany of complaints about Morgan's representation, including that Morgan failed to explain the mens rea element of his conspiracy charge to him before he pled.
On June 5, 2006, Morgan filed a response to Benton's letter, addressing its allegations. In particular, Morgan claimed that he did not discuss mens rea with Benton because it was "not at issue under the facts and circumstances of this case." The district court subsequently allowed Morgan to withdraw as counsel, and current counsel took over Benton's representation.
After this change in counsel, Benton filed a motion with the district court to withdraw his guilty plea. In his motion, Benton alleged that his plea was accepted without a factual basis, that the plea agreement's terms were unconscionable, that Benton's previous counsel had been ineffective (resulting, inter alia, in Benton's plea not being knowing and voluntary), and that the government had breached its obligation to file a motion for downward departure to reward Benton for his assistance in arresting Mills. The district court reviewed the proceedings before the magistrate judge and denied Benton's motion, finding that he had not established a fair and just reason for withdrawing his plea.
On February 5, 2007, Benton appeared before the district court for sentencing. Benton reiterated that he should be entitled to withdraw his plea (for reasons similar to those advanced in his earlier motion), and again the district court rejected his arguments. Ultimately, the district court entered a final judgment based on Benton's plea agreement and sentenced Benton to 262 months in jail and ten years supervised release. At no time before Benton's sentencing did the district court accept Benton's guilty plea.
Benton now appeals the district court's judgment and sentence, raising three claims. First, Benton argues that the district court erred in not allowing him to withdraw his plea. Second, Benton claims that his plea was not knowing and voluntary. Finally, Benton argues that his counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance. We address each of Benton's claims in turn.
Benton first claims that the district court erred in denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, since, under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, he had the right to withdraw his plea for "any reason or no reason."
Benton's challenge to the denial of his withdrawal motion centers on the authority of the magistrate judge to "accept" his guilty plea. The magistrate's power to accept a plea is crucial because of the wording of Rule 11(d), which lays out the circumstances under which a defendant may withdraw a guilty plea:
(d) A defendant may withdraw a plea of guilty or nolo contendere:
(1) before the court accepts the plea, for any reason or no reason; or
(2) after the court accepts the plea, but before it imposes sentence if:
(A) the court rejects a plea agreement under Rule 11(c)(5); or
(B) the defendant can show a fair and just reason for requesting the withdrawal.
Since Benton filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea before the plea was accepted by the district court, he contends that the scope of the magistrate's authority is of paramount importance. Benton argues that, because the magistrate judge lacked the power to accept a plea for the purposes of Rule 11, the district court should have allowed him to withdraw his plea "for any reason or no reason."
Before we analyze the merits of whether a magistrate judge may accept a plea for the purposes of Rule 11, we must first consider whether this question is properly before the court. The government contends that Benton never raised a claim based on the authority of the magistrate judge in the district court, and that, instead, Benton moved to withdraw his plea for "fair and just reason[s]" under Rule 11(d)(2)(B). The government thus argues that Benton's "challenge to the magistrate judge's power to accept a guilty plea ... has been waived." Brief of Appellee at 9.
Failure to raise an argument before the district court typically results in the waiver of that argument on appeal. See United States v. Evans, 404 F.3d 227, 236 n. 5 (4th Cir.2005); see also Holland v. Big River Minerals Corp., 181 F.3d 597, 605 (4th Cir.1999) (citing Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 120, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976)). Parties are likewise deemed to have waived an objection to a magistrate judge's report if they do not present their claims to the district court. See United States v. Midgette, 478 F.3d 616, 621-22 (4th Cir.2007). Moreover, a general objection to a magistrate judge's findings is not sufficient — "a party must object to the [magistrate's] finding or recommendation ... with sufficient specificity so as reasonably to alert the district court of the true ground for the objection." Id. at 622 ().
In this case, Benton did not present his challenge to the magistrate judge's authority with "sufficient specificity" to preserve his claim. Although Benton began his motion to withdraw his plea by generally referencing "Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(d)(1) and (2), as well as, the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the United States Constitution," this sort of general allusion to various legal claims is precisely the sort of pleading that Midgette held was insufficient to prevent waiver.
The touchstone of our inquiry must be whether the district court was made aware of the "true ground for [Benton's] objection." We conclude that it was not. Nowhere in his motion to withdraw his plea did Benton claim that the magistrate judge was unauthorized to accept his plea for the purposes of Rule 11. Likewise, nowhere did Benton mention that he should be allowed to withdraw his plea "for any reason or no reason"; instead, Benton...
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