U.S. v. Williams

Defendant was not entitled under plain error standard to withdraw his guilty plea on charge of possession of firearm by felon under 18 USC section 922(g), even though: (1) Supreme Court in Rehaif, 139 U.S. 2191, required govt. to establish that defendant knew that he possessed firearm, and that he knew that was had relevant felon status when he possessed firearm; (2) prior to Ct.’s decision in Rehaif, defendant had entered guilty plea to instant firearm offense that did not include examination regarding defendant’s knowledge of his felon status at time of firearm possession; and (3) defendant sought for first time in instant direct appeal to withdraw his guilty plea based on lack of evidence regarding his knowledge of his felon status. Defendant was required to establish that: (1) his erroneous understanding of elements of section 922(g) affected his decision to plead guilty; and (2) there was reasonable probability that he would not have pleaded guilty if he had been aware of Rehaif decision prior to entry of said plea. However, defendant could not make said showing, where record indicated that during relevant time, defendant was clearly aware of his felon status, given that he had spent 12 years in prison on murder charge, and where defendant had referred to his felon status in his sentencing memorandum. As such, it was fairly unlikely that defendant would have gone to trial to litigate instant knowledge element and risk longer sentence, where nature of evidence establishing said knowledge was overwhelming.