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THE PLEA ALLOCUTION RAISED THE POSSIBILITY OF DURESS AS AN AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE; THE JUDGE MADE NO INQUIRY INTO THE VALIDITY OF PLEA; CONVICTION REVERSED DESPITE DEFENDANT’S FAILURE TO MOVE TO WITHDRAW THE PLEA (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing defendant’s conviction by guilty plea, determined the plea allocution raised duress as a possible affirmative defense and the judge did not inquire into the validity of the plea. The issue was considered on appeal despite the failure to move to withdraw the plea:

To be valid, a plea of guilty must be entered voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently … . Generally, a defendant must preserve for appellate review a challenge to the validity of a guilty plea … . When, however, a “defendant’s recitation of the facts underlying the crime pleaded to clearly casts significant doubt upon the defendant’s guilt or otherwise calls into question the voluntariness of the plea,” the court has a duty to inquire further to make sure that the defendant understands the nature of the charge and that the plea has been intelligently entered … . Where the court failed in its duty to inquire further, a defendant may raise a claim regarding the validity of the plea even without having moved to withdraw the plea … .

In this case, the defendant’s contention challenging the validity of his plea of guilty is unpreserved for appellate review since he did not move to withdraw his plea or otherwise raise that issue prior to the imposition of sentence … . However, the County Court’s failure to inquire into the validity of the plea after the defendant’s allocution raised the possibility of an affirmative defense based on duress (see Penal Law § 40.00) permits the defendant to challenge the sufficiency of the allocution on direct appeal, and requires reversal of the judgment of conviction … . People v Rodriguez, 2023 NY Slip Op 00678, Second Dept 2-8-23

Practice Point: Here the defendant’s allocution raised the possibility he had duress as an affirmative defense but the judge made no inquiry into the validity of the plea. Despite the defendant’s failure to preserve the error by moving to withdraw the plea, the appellate court reversed his conviction.

 

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