9.38 - VII. Vacating Guilty Pleas

• Jurisdiction: New York

VII. VACATING GUILTY PLEAS

A guilty plea, once entered, cannot be routinely vacated, even prior to sentencing, although a court has statutory discretion do so.¹⁷⁷² Challenges to guilty pleas must first be made in the court of original instance by a motion to vacate in order to preserve an issue for review on appeal.¹⁷⁷³ There is one narrow exception. It is the rare case where the defendant’s recitation of the facts underlying the crime clearly casts doubt upon his guilt or otherwise calls into question the voluntariness of the guilty plea itself. If a trial judge accepts such a plea without conducting further inquiry, a defendant is entitled to challenge his plea allocution’s sufficiency on appeal.¹⁷⁷⁴ However, courts have proved reluctant to establish a liberal policy concerning the vacating of guilty pleas.¹⁷⁷⁵

A defendant has a right to the effective assistance of counsel on a motion to withdraw a guilty plea. The court that originally accepted the guilty plea has broad discretion in its fact-finding inquiry and oftentimes a limited interrogation by the court will suffice. Very rarely will a defendant who has pled guilty be entitled to an evidentiary hearing. If a motion to withdraw a previously entered plea is patently insufficient on its face, the court may simply deny the motion there and then. If defense counsel’s actions are challenged by the defendant, it may be necessary for him to address the matter if...