Recently, in San Diego County at the Central Courthouse we successfully litigated two post-convictions motions on behalf of one client.
At the time that our client hired our office, he was in deportation proceedings based on his two 1998 Health and Safety Code section 11360(a) convictions.
Prior to litigating the Penal Code §1473.7 motions, our office began by reducing both offenses to misdemeanors pursuant to Proposition 64 (Penal Code section 11361.8). However, even with this relief the 1998 convictions continued to cause our client immigration prejudice. In this case, our client was ineligible for cancellation of removal proceedings.
For both cases, our office argued that despite the Waiver Form available in the court files, our client failed to meaningfully understand the immigration consequences that would result from his 1998 Health and Safety Code §11360(a) felony convictions. We argued that our client was only advised that his conviction could cause him immigration consequences, rendering him unable to defend against these charges since the advisement failed to accurately advise our client of the permanent immigration consequences.
Our office also argued that our client did not meaningfully understand the consequences of his convictions because he was not aware, at the time of the plea, that he could have sought to negotiate to an alternative disposition without immigration consequences. In this case, our client could have plead to Penal Code §415.
At the hearing, the court granted both motions and after strenuous negotiation with the prosecution, the prosecution agreed to allow our client to enter immigration-friendly pleas on both cases by pleading to Penal Code §415.
This is a great victory for our client and will better his opportunity to cancel the removal proceedings and allow him to remain in the United States!
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