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Fascinating plea reversal from the Fourth Circuit … and Seventh, too

By Douglas Berman

The Fourth Circuit has a notable ruling in a case with remarkable facts today in US v. Mastrapa, No. 06-4512 (4th Cir. Dec. 12, 2007) (available here).  Here is how it starts:

After Jose Alejandro Mastrapa agreed with two other men to transport several bags of groceries to a hotel room in Shenandoah County, Virginia, undercover agents in the hotel found five pounds of methamphetamine among the groceries and arrested Mastrapa along with the two others.  Mastrapa claimed that he had agreed to give the two men a ride and help carry their grocery bags but that he did not know them or what they were doing. Nonetheless, claiming that he hoped to minimize his sentence, Mastrapa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1).  At his Rule 11 colloquy, however, Mastrapa refused, despite questioning by the district court, to admit to the factual basis necessary to support the charges against him, and the record included no evidence of Mastrapa’s mens rea.

The district court nonetheless proceeded to accept Mastrapa’s guilty plea and sentenced him to 120 months’ imprisonment.  Because we conclude that Mastrapa did not admit the necessary mens rea before entering his plea and the record contained no factual basis to support that element of the offense, we vacate the judgment entered on May 8, 2006, and remand for a new Rule 11 proceeding.

Among other notable features of this case, Mastrapa does not speak any English and his original attorney filed an Anders brief with the Fourth Circuit.  The Court thereafter appointed the University of Virginia School of Law Appellate Litigation Clinic to file a brief on Mastrapa’s behalf, and now he gets a redo.

UPDATE:  As a commentor noted, the Seventh Circuit has a notable split ruling in US v. Sura, No. 05-1478 (7th Cir. Dec. 12, 2007) (available here) vacating a plea, though the case has more to do with an appeal waiver than a substantive misunderstanding of a plea.