Hunter v. United States · ¶68

The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, this Court has held, tolerates only “voluntary and knowing” guilty pleas. McCarthy v. United States, 394 U. S. 459, 466 (1969). That standard is met only if the defendant “intentional[ly] relinquish[es] or abandon[s] . . . known right[s] or privilege[s].” Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). A guilty plea thus must be made both “voluntarily” and “with full understanding of the consequences.” Kercheval v. United States, 274 U. S. 220, 223 (1927). It's a rule that means a defendant signing a plea agreement containing an appeal waiver must voluntarily abandon not just his right to trial but his right to appeal his conviction and sentence as well. And he must fully understand the consequences of that decision. Ante, at 723 (“[A]n appeal waiver, like the rest of a plea agreement, must be knowing and voluntary to be valid”); see also Garza,…

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