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80. How is the court likely to rule?
At the end of the woman's short prison term, immigration authorities informed her that the conviction required her deportation. The woman filed a motion to vacate the plea, citing ineffective assistance of counsel.
A woman was charged with stealing from her employer. Her lawyer advised her to plead guilty, citing overwhelming evidence that included a video recording of her confession and multiple witnesses. The woman repeatedly asked whether a guilty plea might lead to her deportation because she had come to the United States as a child and had lawful permanent resident status but not citizenship. The lawyer assured the woman that the charge would not result in deportation and emphasized the unusually favorable terms of the plea bargain. The woman accepted the plea offer.
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Here, defense counsel failed to properly inform the client that her guilty plea could lead to deportation. Indeed, counsel affirmatively misled the client by assuring her that there would be no such consequence. In doing so, counsel rendered deficient performance that was prejudicial because it led the client to accept a plea when she otherwise would have chosen to go to trial.
B is incorrect. The woman's formal admission of guilt was the result of counsel's ineffective assistance in erroneously stating that entering a guilty plea would not result in deportation.
C is incorrect. In general, defense counsel is not required to advise a defendant about all collateral consequences of conviction. However, counsel is specifically required to advise about the possibility of immigration consequences. Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010). Moreover, counsel's performance here was worse than merely failing to advise: counsel affirmatively misadvised the client about the potential immigration consequences.
D is incorrect. The «prejudice» inquiry focuses on a defendant's decision-making, an inquiry that does not turn solely on the likelihood of conviction at trial. Lee v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1958 (2017). Although it may be difficult to show prejudice when the plea led to a more favorable result than the probable outcome at trial, such a showing is not impossible. When faced with an outcome as dire as deportation, a defendant may reasonably choose to go to trial, even when that avenue presents only the smallest chance of success.