Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
EMANUEL ROSS,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________
PER CURIAM
credit for time served from April 17, 2001, to the time of
sentencing.
codefendant then tied up the victim and gave the victim a cell
defendant the money the victim owed him. None of the people the
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I sent my family to [defense counsel's]
office and asked her to see if she could get
me seven. If not seven, I'll take nine.
The response was, we don't know who's
testifying right now. It's still early. We
can always get the nine back, but it's
scheduled for trial. That --in three years,
. . . the deal never changed. It was always
nine. Then the day that I find out that my
codefendant is testifying, . . . I'm under
the assumption that I have to live with the
nine.
longer in the prosecutor's office, and the file did not indicate
knew that I was guilty. My whole thing was to get the best deal
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15." He pointed out that even if he had the nine years
entitled to credit for time served from April 17, 2001, to the
the jail credits as at least 826 days. In the end, the judge
January 15, 2004, he gave defendant credit for only ten days of
time spent in custody from February 6 to 15, 2001, and gave him
890 days of gap-time credit from June 15, 2001, to November 21,
credit as gap time, the judgment did not take any time off the
1
The judgment of conviction entered immediately after sentencing
is not in defendant's appendix.
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the judge when he amended the judgment of conviction at the
v. New Jersey State Parole Board, 271 N.J. Super. 420, 424 (App.
Div. 1994).2 The State agreed that the matter should be remanded
August 31, 2006, affirming the sentence but remanding the matter
from February 6 to 15, 2001, and April 17, 2001, to November 20,
conviction.
2
In Glover, supra, 271 N.J. Super. at 424, the court found "that
a fair accommodation of all legitimate interests, consistent
with due process and applicable standing principles, requires
the making of a formal motion to the trial judge for
resentencing based on an asserted illegality in the sentence
imposed by the judgment of conviction." Additionally, "the
motion should properly be made by one of the parties to the
criminal action."
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"the egregious shortcoming in professional performance of
notaries public.
fashion.
prosecutor was having trouble with the witnesses, she might get
a better deal, and defendant should not worry about the original
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plea offer increasing. Defense counsel assured the individuals
present that the plea offer would be on the table until the
longer available and that the only plea available at that time
was fifteen years. She asserted that her brother accepted the
plea offer, but "he was very disappointed in his lawyer's bad
ineffective.
[Defense counsel] would not accept his phone calls nor visit
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Defendant's mother then discussed a status conference she
was in his best interest to accept the plea deal. After that
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was with his lawyer[] to the sentencing
judge . . . . [Defense counsel] never
explained why she gave [defendant] such bad
advice; she only said that the new sentence
was a little longer than the original one.
for PCR, he explained that the first plea offer was for a total
seven years and six months. He expressed that the sentence was
him that the State's plea offer would not increase and that it
trial.
provided by his sister and mother and averred that his defense
strategy."
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Defendant further related that during jury selection, he
State rescinded the original offer and was only willing to agree
above and sought to have the guilty plea and sentence entered in
the matter set aside and the case set down for an evidentiary
The matter came before the PCR judge on June 5, 2009. The
in the court file dated December 10, 2001, placing the matter on
the trial calendar. That order stated that defendant had not
3
The order of December 10, 2001, is not in the record on appeal,
nor is there a transcript of the proceedings from that day.
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The judge found that the evidence before him was no more
judge further noted that defendant was not claiming he was not
guilty of the crime, but was only saying that he wanted the
initial plea offer that was made early in the case.5 The PCR
4
Defendant did not plead guilty until 2003, and the December 10,
2001, order was entered only six months after the indictment.
5
Defendant and his family all certified that the plea offer of
nine consecutive years was on the table in the summer of 2002,
which was six months after the December 10, 2001, order.
Furthermore, defendant certified that he understood the offer of
nine consecutive years was still on the table when he went to
trial in 2003 and decided to plead guilty.
6
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 80 L.
Ed. 2d 674 (1984).
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record; and I can get you that deal back at
the beginning of the case when the
prosecutor didn't put any work into the
case.
Thus, the judge concluded that defendant had not met the
application.
Thomas v. Vaughn, 355 F.3d 294, 303 (3d Cir. 2004); Hakeem v.
Beyer, 990 F.2d 750, 758 (3d Cir. 1993)), cert. denied, 545 U.S.
1145, 125 S. Ct. 2973, 162 L. Ed. 2d 898 (2005). The same scope
420 (citing McCandless v. Vaughn, 172 F.3d 255, 265 (3d Cir.
Zettlemoyer v. Fulcomer, 923 F.2d 284, 291 n.5 (3d Cir.), cert.
denied, 502 U.S. 902, 112 S. Ct. 280, 116 L. Ed. 2d 232 (1991)).
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there was no evidentiary hearing and no credibility
New Jersey under Fritz, supra, 105 N.J. at 57-58. Whether the
O'Neal, 190 N.J. 601, 629 (2007) (quoting Fritz, supra, 105 N.J.
at 52).
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requires showing that counsel made errors so
serious that counsel was not functioning as
the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by
the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant
must show that the deficient performance
prejudiced the defense. This requires
showing that counsel's errors were so
serious as to deprive the defendant of a
fair trial, a trial whose result is
reliable.
N.J. Super. 14, 22 (App. Div. 2002). The defendant must show
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should "'evaluat[e] the conduct from counsel's perspective at
at 22.
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Super. 362, 377 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 130 N.J. 17 (1992).
Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 58, 106 S. Ct. 366, 370, 88 L.
Ed. 2d 203, 210 (1985) ("We hold, therefore, that the two-part
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process. In other words, . . . the defendant must show that
errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted
State was about to withdraw its nine-year plea offer, that the
his family. Clearly, the order of December 10, 2001, did not
family with respect to the offer that was on the table in the
summer of 2002.
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The standard for an evidentiary hearing in PCR proceedings
judge must view the facts of the case in a light most favorable
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evidentiary hearing so that the judge may hear testimony from
Prosecutor Ortega, and decide the facts. Only then will the PCR
opinion.
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