Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Help

If you sign a plea bargain, and you are not guilty of the crime....your only reason of signing it is because your lawyer told you 3 days before the rrial that you either could sign it or he would know longer repersent and you were scared of what would happen in court, even if the judge said the lawyer had to repersent you because he had been paid in full, you were afraid the lawyer would not put up a defense. Is there any way of changing or going to another court to over turn the plea you signed


Asked on 11/14/04, 9:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Richard S. Stolker Uptown Law, LLC

Re: Help

When you plead guilty, the Court should have asked whether you understood the nature of the crime with you are charged, and whether you understood that by pleading guilty you were giving up the right to a trial by jury, the right to cross examine the Commonwealth's witnesses, the right to call witnesses in your own defense, and so on.

If by your response to the Court's questions the judge was convinced that your plea was knowing and voluntary, the Court would have accepted your guilty plea.

In pleading guilty, you have given up the right to appeal. However, if you can prove that your plea was coerced (forced), you may have a limited right to appeal on that ground. That can be hard to prove (especially if you already testified under oath in open Court that your guilty plea was knowing and voluntary), and you certainly will need the assistance of competent counsel.

Richard S. Stolker

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301-294-9500

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Answered on 11/17/04, 9:22 am


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