People v. Byrd

Summary

The Appellate Division, Third Department, affirmed a Broome County judgment convicting Kemonei M. Byrd upon a guilty plea to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. The court held that the defendant's waiver of the right to appeal was knowing and voluntary, and rejected or found unpreserved his challenges to the plea's voluntariness, factual sufficiency, and effective assistance of counsel.

Holdings

1. The appeal waiver was valid because the oral colloquy and defendant's assurances established that he knowingly and voluntarily understood and waived his right to appeal, notwithstanding potentially overbroad language in the written waiver.
2. Defendant's challenges to the voluntariness and factual sufficiency of the plea, and his ineffective-assistance claim to the extent it implicated plea voluntariness, were unpreserved because he did not make an appropriate postallocution motion and the narrow exception to the preservation requirement was not triggered.
3. When a defendant pleads guilty to a lesser crime as part of a plea bargain, the court is not required to conduct a factual recitation establishing every element of the crime.
4. Even if considered, defendant's ineffective-assistance claim lacked merit because the record reflected meaningful representation, defendant expressed satisfaction with counsel, and counsel obtained an advantageous plea.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendant's written and oral waiver of the right to appeal was knowing and voluntary and therefore valid.
2. Whether defendant's challenges to the voluntariness and factual sufficiency of his guilty plea were preserved for appellate review.
3. Whether defendant's ineffective-assistance claim, insofar as it implicated the voluntariness of the plea, was preserved and meritorious.
4. Whether the guilty plea required a factual recitation establishing every element of the reduced offense.

Disposition

affirmed