People v Moyett, 2006 NY Slip Op 08643 [available here]
In a short decision driving home the holding of another recent decision, the Court of Appeals held in Moyett that a defendant's waiver of his right to appeal was not valid where the trial court simply told the defendant, "by pleading guilty you give up your right to appeal the conviction." (Moyett, 2006 NY Slip Op 08643.) This colloquy was insufficient to ensure that the defendant understood that the right to appeal is not simply extinguished upon a plea of guilty, but must be affirmatively waived. From the decision:
Based on this statement, defendant may have erroneously believed that the right to appeal is automatically extinguished upon entry of a guilty plea. Under these circumstances, and absent a written waiver of appeal or some indication in the record that defendant understood the distinction between the right to appeal and other trial rights forfeited incident to a guilty plea, there is inadequate assurance that defendant entered into a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of appeal.
(Id [citations omitted].)
The Moyett decision does little more than apply the Court's recent decision in People v Lopez, where the Court clarified that a plea "record must establish that the defendant understood that the right to appeal is separate and distinct from those rights automatically forfeited upon a plea of guilty." (People v Lopez, 2006 NY Slip Op 01195.)
