Gerald Blaise II v. United States

Whether a defendant previously convicted of a felony offense violates 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) & 924(a)(2) when, at the time that he possesses a firearm, he honestly but mistakenly believes that his civil rights (including his right to possess a firearm) have been restored.

Whether petitioner’s guilty plea was not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary because he erroneously was led to believe that he was guilty of violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) & 924(a)(2), despite the fact (as the district court found) that, when petitioner possessed the firearm, he honestly but mistakenly believed that his civil rights had been restored.

Whether the Ninth Circuit erroneously presumed that, before petitioner pleaded guilty, his defense counsel had properly explained the mens rea element of the charge under 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) & 924(a)(2), when the record clearly rebuts that presumption.

Whether, as several other circuits have held, an appellate waiver provision in a plea agreement does not apply to a defendant’s substantial claim on appeal that he is actually innocent of the offense to which he pleaded guilty; or, instead, as the Ninth Circuit held in petitioner’s case, such an appellate waiver applies to a substantial claim of actual innocence.