Sunday, April 06, 2008

Immigrant who earlier plead guilty to two separate drug related felonies and had already served those sentences filed to withdraw those guilty pleas because he discovered the Federal Government would consider him deportable. Defendant plead guilty to the cases before Section 29-1819.02 required the court to advise immigrants of the consequences of pleading guilty to their immigration status. Nebraska Supreme Court holds the district court did not have jurisdiction to hear his motions to withdraw his guilty plea after already serving his sentences . State v. Rodriguez-Torres, S-06-1351, 275 Neb. 363 "Although § 29-1819.02 gives the trial court some discretion to allow a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea, the statute does not provide a separate procedure to accomplish that after the defendant’s conviction has become final. Since Nebraska statutes do not authorized any procedure allowing for the present action, the district court was without jurisdiction to address the merits of R odriguez-Torres’ motion."

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