Federal Judiciary

US v. Kroytor, No. 19-16459 (10-14-2020)(Hunsaker w/Miller & Schiltz). This is a coram nobis case. The 9th denies the claim because the petitioner, facing removal, waited two years before seeing to get out of his guilty plea based on IAC (bad advice). The advice was that if the person paid restitution (health care fraud) and did not serve time, he could hide his agg felony conviction from immigration. This was obviously wrong. Indeed, the poor petition ? a LPR from Canada ? went through a series of lawyers who gave misleading advice, wrong counsel, or just dropped the ball.  Still, he had counsel when Padilla was decided, and the issue of retroactivity under Kwan (9th Cir precedent) allowed the extraordinary writ. Petitioner?s counsel fretted that the law was unclear and did not file for two years. This delay proved fatal. As the  9th writes: ?Uncertainty in the law itself does not justify delay in filing a writ of coram nobis petition where such uncertainty does not prevent a petitioner from reasonably presenting a claim for relief.? (13).

Ben Coleman ably represented him on appeal in this sad case.

The decision is here:

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/10/14/19-16459.pdf

Full post as published by Ninth Circuit Blog on October 14, 2020 (boomark / email).