LAW.coLAW.co

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. John Ashley STEHL, Appellant

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit1981-12-03No. No. 81-5066
665 F.2d 58

Summary

Holding. Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure does not apply to probation revocation proceedings. The court affirmed the order requiring the defendant to serve thirty months of imprisonment.

A defendant convicted of credit card offenses was placed on probation. After being convicted of perjury in state court, a probation revocation hearing was held where he pleaded guilty to violating his probation conditions. The defendant argued that Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, which governs guilty pleas in criminal prosecutions, should apply to the revocation proceeding and that his plea was therefore invalid because he was not fully advised of his rights and potential consequences.

The court rejected this argument, holding that Rule 11 does not govern probation revocation proceedings. The court reasoned that revocation hearings are fundamentally distinct from criminal prosecutions: they do not provide defendants the right to a jury trial or an absolute right to counsel. Because the protections afforded probationers during revocation are more limited than those in criminal cases, the detailed requirements of Rule 11 do not apply. The court noted that the Fifth and Ninth Circuits had reached the same conclusion previously.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure applies to probation revocation hearings
  • What procedural protections are required in probation revocation proceedings under the Due Process Clause
  • Whether a guilty plea at a revocation hearing must comply with Rule 11 standards

Procedural posture

The defendant appealed from a district court order revoking his probation and requiring him to serve thirty months of his suspended prison sentence, contending that the revocation process violated Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Cited by (1)

Opinion

majority opinion

HAYNSWORTH, Senior Circuit Judge:

We reject the appellant’s contention that Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure applies in its entirety to a probation revocation proceeding.

Upon a plea of guilty, the defendant was convicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia of credit card offenses. A sentence of five years imprisonment and a fine of $22,000 was imposed upon him, but the prison term and a portion of the fine were suspended, and the defendant was placed on probation for five years.

Later, the defendant was convicted in a state court of perjury during a prosecution against him for larceny, a proceeding which had resulted in his acquittal. The perjury conviction led to the filing of a probation revocation petition.

At a probation revocation hearing, the defendant tendered a plea that he was guilty of a violation of the conditions of his probation. The district judge questioned him closely and extensively about the vol-untariness of his plea, but did not advise him of procedural rights that he was waiving or warn him that his answers to questions might later be used against him in a prosecution for perjury. He appeals from an order requiring him to serve thirty months of his five year sentence, consecutive to the state court sentence he was then serving, contending that there had been a violation of Rule 11.

In Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972), and in Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973), in which the Supreme Court considered what procedural rights the due process clause gave probationers and parolees during revocation proceedings, it was repeatedly emphasized that the revocation proceeding was not a part of the criminal prosecution.

Rule 11(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure fits nicely in the context of a federal prosecution for a substantive offense. It simply does not fit a probation or parole revocation proceeding in which the defendant has no right to a trial by a jury and in which, though he be indigent, he has no absolute right to the appointment and assistance of counsel. The rights which a probationer or parolee enjoy during a revocation proceeding are simply not co-extensive with those enjoyed by a defendant during a prosecution for a substantive offense.

This identical question has been considered by the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Fifth Circuits, each of which held that Rule 11 has no application to probation revocation proceedings. United States v. Johns, 625 F.2d 1175 (5th Cir. 1980); United States v. Hill, 548 F.2d 1380 (9th Cir. 1977); United States v. Segal, 549 F.2d 1293 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 919, 97 S.Ct. 2187, 53 L.Ed.2d 231 (1977). For the reasons fully developed in the opinions of those courts, we join them in the conclusion that Rule 11 has no application to probation revocation proceedings.

Since there was no infirmity in the revocation process, the order requiring service of thirty months imprisonment is affirmed.

AFFIRMED.