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Cody v. United States

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APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Judge]

Michael Cody pled guilty in 1992 to conspiring to import and distribute over 1000 pounds of marijuana and to being a felon in possession of a firearm. At his plea hearing, Cody told the court that he was on the drug lithium; the court inquired whether the drug affected his ability to think normally, and Cody twice answered that it did not. After the plea hearing, Cody wrote the court several letters asking to withdraw his plea on the ground that lithium did in fact so influence his judgment at the time of his plea as to render the plea involuntary. The letters also suggested, as a secondary matter, that his attorney had pressured him to plead guilty. The court ordered the case to conference to address the issues raised in the letters. At the hearing, while Cody continued to be represented by the same lawyer, his attempt to withdraw his plea was heard and rejected, and the court proceeded to sentence him to 14 years in prison. No appeal was taken.

As a result of his plea bargain Cody received the benefit of a sentence of about half the guideline range for his crimes. Not content, in 1995 he persisted in trying to vacate the plea after sentencing by filing a petition under 28 U.S.C. � 2255. After some procedural delays and mishaps not pertinent here, his petition was denied in February 2000. Accompanying the denial was a certificate of appealability, which we construe as raising two issues: first, whether Cody’s plea was voluntary; second, whether his counsel was ineffective either in permitting the plea to go forward or in representing Cody in his attempt to have the plea withdrawn. We affirm the district court’s denial of the � 2255 petition as to both issues. *fn1

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