Contino v. United States

In August 2007, John Contino, through counsel, filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to vacate his guilty plea and sentence, alleging that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel and that his plea was not voluntary and intelligent because his trial counsel failed to give him sufficient advice and information. The district court denied the § 2255 motion, and this appeal followed. In addition to seeking a COA on those two claims, Contino argues that the district court erred by not holding an evi-dentiary hearing on the issue of whether his trial counsel explained the elements of the RICO…