The California Court of Appeals, Fourth Appellate District has reversed the denial of a motion to vacate under Penal Code section 1473.7, even though the defendant signed a plea form advising him that he would be deported, excluded from admission, and denied naturalization. In this case, the original defense counsel had negotiated an immigration safe plea, but he transferred offices before the case was finished. The defendant took the plea with the second attorney, and before he could be sentenced pursuant to the deal negotiated by his first attorney, he was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned in another county. The second attorney, in his absence, accepted a concurrent sentence on the original conviction, which converted the conviction from an immigration-safe plea into an aggravated felony. As a result of the advice provided by the original defense counsel that the plea was immigration safe, and the failure of the second attorney to clearly explain that the concurrent sentence would have adverse immigration consequences, the appellate court concluded that the defendant did not meaningfully understand the consequences of the conviction.
The full text of People v. Rodriguez can be found here: