Joe Villarreal v. United States

OPINION

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge:

In 1965, Villarreal pleaded guilty to two counts of armed bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a), (d), and was sentenced to consecutive prison terms of ten and twenty years. Starting in 1967, he filed petitions under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate these sentences on the grounds that he had lacked understanding of the consequence of his plea and that the plea had been induced by representations from his counsel that his total sentence would not exceed fifteen years. In Villarreal v. United States, 461 F.2d 765 (9th Cir. 1972), we held that an evidentiary…