United States v. Toran , 50 F. App'x 79 ( 2002 )

Opinions of the United
2002 Decisions States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit
10-22-2002
USA v. Toran
Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential
Docket No. 00-3786
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NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
No. 00-3786
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
MALCOLM HUSSAIN TORAN,
a/k/a HOTS
MALCOLM TORAN,
Appellant
ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN
DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
(Dist. Court No. 99-cr-00007-4E)
District Court Judge: Maurice B. Cohill, Jr.
Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
September 20, 2002
Before: SCIRICA, ALITO, and MCKEE, Circuit Judges.
(Opinion Filed: )
OPINION OF THE COURT
PER CURIAM:
Because we write for the parties only, the background of the case need not be set out.
Appellant Malcolm Hussain Toran (“Appellant”) appeals his conviction for conspiracy
to possess with the intent to distribute an amount of cocaine base in excess of 50 grams in
violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. For the reasons stated below, we affirm Appellant’s
conviction.
I.
Where a federal criminal defendant enters a guilty plea as to a given charge, a court
may only overturn the defendant’s conviction on the ground that the defendant’s plea was not
“voluntary and intelligent” in nature. Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 267 (1973).
Although Tollett involved a petition for federal habeas corpus, this Court has confirmed that
the restrictions described in Tollett on challenges to a district court’s rulings on pre-trial
motions where a defendant has pled guilty are also applicable where the defendant brings
such challenges on direct appeal from his conviction. In United States v. Huff, 873 F.2d 709
(3d Cir. 1989), the defendant was arrested for bank robbery and related offenses and made
inculpatory statements to the police in the course of his interrogation. Defendant filed pre-
trial motions requesting that the statements be suppressed because they were involuntarily
taken in violation of his constitutional rights. The District Court denied these motions.
Subsequently, defendant elected to plead guilty to certain charges in exchange for the
government’s agreement to dismiss the remaining counts and not to oppose defendant’s
request to concurrently serve the sentences imposed for the counts to which he pled guilty.
At sentencing, defendant moved to withdraw his plea and go to trial, again raising the
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argument that his statements to the police were not voluntarily given. The District Court
denied defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea. Defendant then appealed, arguing that the
district court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress his statements to the police.
The Court declined to reach this question, reasoning that “[i]f [defendant] wanted to preserve
his right to challenge the validity of his statements on appeal, he should have refused to plead
guilty unless his plea was conditional under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2).” Id. at 712. Since
defendant conceded that his guilty plea was unconditional in nature, he could not appeal the
District Court’s denial of his suppression motions, and could only attack his conviction on
the ground that he did not voluntarily and intelligently enter his guilty plea.
In the instant case, Appellant does not dispute that his guilty plea, like that of the
defendant in Huff, was unconditional in nature; Appellant did not reserve the right to appeal
the District Court’s determinations regarding his motion to suppress his statements to Agent
Van Slyke and Detective Nolan. Nor does Appellant deny that this Court’s holding in Huff
prevents him from challenging the District Court’s denial of his motion on appeal. Appellant
instead contends that this Court should “modif[y] or exten[d]” the doctrine set out in Huff
“due to the constitutional nature of [Appellant’s] claim (the Fifth Amendment right not to
incriminate himself and his Sixth Amendment right to counsel,) the government’s conduct,
and the length of his incarceration.” Brief for Appellant at 13.
As noted above, this Court has previously acknowledged that the holding of Tollett
applies to direct appeals by defendants who have entered guilty pleas. The Supreme Court’s
language in Tollett did not admit of exceptions where facts such as those in the instant case
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are present. Indeed, Tollett itself involved a highly similar factual situation. The appellant in
Tollett argued that despite his plea of guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and
subsequent sentence of 99 years’ imprisonment, he should be able to attack his conviction
because racial discrimination was unconstitutionally employed in selecting the members of
the grand jury that indicted him. Thus, appellant in Tollett also sought to raise constitutional
attacks on his conviction, cited egregious governmental conduct to support his position, and
had received a severe sentence for his crimes, but the Supreme Court denied appellant the
ability to overturn his guilty plea. Given this case’s similarity to Tollett, crafting an
exception to the prohibition on challenging pre-trial rulings where the defendant has pled
guilty on these facts would disregard the mandate of Supreme Court precedent. Hence, we
decline to entertain Appellant’s challenges to the District Court’s denial of his suppression
motion.
The judgment of the District Court is affirmed.
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TO THE CLERK OF THE COURT:
Kindly file the foregoing Not Precedential Opinion.
Circuit Judge
5
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
No. 00-3786
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
MALCOLM HUSSAIN TORAN,
a/k/a HOTS
MALCOLM TORAN,
Appellant
ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN
DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
(Dist. Court No. 99-cr-00007-4E)
District Court Judge: Maurice B. Cohill, Jr.
Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
September 20, 2002
Before: SCIRICA, ALITO, and MCKEE, Circuit Judges.
(Opinion Filed: )
JUDGMENT
This cause came to be heard on the record from the United States District
Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and was submitted under Third Circuit LAR
34.1(a) on September 20, 2002.
After review and consideration of all contentions raised by the Appellants, it is
hereby ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the District Court entered on October 25,
2000 be and is hereby affirmed, all in accordance with the opinion of this court.
ATTEST:
Clerk
DATED: