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July 01, 2008

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Jenny Roberts

Dan,
I second your comments about how unlikely it is that loss-of-gun-rights warnings will become a part of the information-restrictive plea colloquy (or the counseling leading up to that plea, where defense counsel silence about "collateral" consequences is also currently immune from constitutional attack). Here's what I wrote in response to Doug Berman's post:

I agree that there will be all sorts of interesting litigation in Heller's wake. However, I don't think the right to a warning about loss of Second Amendment rights as part of the plea colloquy is a likely winning argument in the near future, at least not as a constitutional matter. Unlike waiver of the rights to a jury trial and witness confrontation and against self-incrimination, as well any "direct" (penal) consequence, loss of gun rights is going to fall into the "collateral consequences" group, where many severe consequences reside. If there's no right to a warning about automatic deportation for, say, a misdemeanor conviction or to the possibility of lifetime, post-sentence involuntary commitment as a "sexually violent predator" for sex offense convictions, both of which implicate constitutional liberty losses, I don't see how the gun warning would be any different. This is not to say that I agree with the stamp of constitutional approval for silence on these consequences, which certainly matter a lot to many defendants making plea decisions. It's just the sorry state of where things stand, now at least, on a defendant's right to information in the plea process.

David

I wrote about this post at the link below and I'd keep you in the loop in case you want to comment.

http://nelawyer.blogspot.com/2008/08/dont-know-why-you-gotta-be-angry-all.html

Resume Writing Service

I agree that there will be all sorts of interesting litigation in Heller's wake. However, I don't think the right to a warning about loss of Second Amendment rights as part of the plea colloquy is a likely winning argument in the near future, at least not as a constitutional matter.

seoreseller.com

I agree that criminal defense lawyers will work hard to use Heller. At the end of the day, however, I suspect that most legal havoc will come via facial challenges to broad gun regulation.

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