Mexican national is connected to the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent in the United States. Seven years later, FBI agents interrogate him in a Mexican prison. After reading him his Miranda rights, they hit him with everything: good cop, bad cop; your friends told us a different story; we're not charging you with anything. He doesn't bite. Then his lawyer says, you were just in the mountains looking to rob drug dealers, and that's not a crime, so tell these guys what they want to know. So he does. Ninth Circuit: Yikes! The advice was “blatantly incorrect” and extremely ineffective assistance of counsel. Dissent: We should make this guy who admitted to participating in the murder of a federal agent work at least a little harder before we vacate his sentence on habeas rather than direct appeal.
The case is United States v. Osorio-Arellanes, 20-10003 (9th Cir. Aug. 9, 2024).