Delatorre v. U.S.

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s section 2255 petition, alleging that prosecutor committed misconduct in failing to make good on promise to provide defendant with plea agreement limiting sentence to no more than 30 years under circumstances where defendant took case to jury trial, which resulted in his conviction on several racketeering and drug charges and imposition of life sentence. Record showed that defendant had procedurally defaulted said claim by failing to raise it at trial or on his direct appeal, and defendant failed to establish any good cause to excuse said default, where defendant was aware of all relevant facts to raise such claim by time he was at trial. Ct. further rejected defendant’s related claim that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to secure plea agreement prior to defendant’s trial, where: (1) any plea agreement was premised on defendant’s continued cooperation with govt.; and (2) trial counsel could not be faulted where defendant had failed to continue such cooperation in spite of trial counsel's encouragement of defendant to do so.