Abstract
Ninety-seven percent of all federal criminal convictions come from a plea agreement, and two-thirds of federal plea agreements contain an appeal waiver. The Supreme Court has held that appeal waivers can be enforced, but not under what circumstances. What happens if a criminal defendant waives their right to appeal and then is sentenced to time incarcerated that is higher than the statutory maximum? Or what happens when a defendant claims counsel was ineffective in giving them advice about entering into the plea agreement? Or when a criminal defendant claims the judge gave them a higher sentence because they are Black? In many of these circumstances, courts will decline to enforce an appeal waiver. Several circuits will refuse to enforce an appeal waiver when doing so would "work a miscarriage of justice." Several other circuits have rejected this standard as "infinitely variable." In this Note, I explore the "Miscarriage of Justice" exception to appeal waiver enforcement, a circuit split, which I argue is not nearly as much of a split as the circuit courts would make it out to be. I argue for a new framework of listing the existing exceptions to enforcement, and factors for considering when new circumstances warrant a court refusing to enforce an appeal waiver.
Volume
110
Issue
4
Page
1951
Year
2026
Recommended Citation
Bex Warner,
The "Miscarriage of Justice" Exception to Appeal Waiver Enforcement: Debunking and Demystifying the Circuit Split,
110
Minn. L. Rev.
1951
(2026).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/minnlrev/vol110/iss4/6
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Publication Abbreviation
Minn. L. Rev.
