Empty Promises at the Guilty Plea Hearing

So, I was sitting in a courtroom waiting for a case to be called and I noticed something disturbing. A guy standing at the podium, which happened to be next to my chair, was pleading guilty to a felony when the judge asked him, “Do you understand the terms of your plea agreement?” The guy paused and then asked his lawyer what something in the agreement meant. The lawyer whispered to him, “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it later on.” Happy with that answer, the guy told the judge he was “good” and was whisked away to serve his prison sentence.

Why is this disturbing? Because if the guy’s lawyer doesn’t fix whatever the problem was that made him hesitate before pleading guilty, he faces a rough road to undo that guilty plea. And he likely won’t succeed because he said — on the record in open court — that he…