NJ Supreme Court Rules that Padilla is not Retroactive, Consequences

The NJ Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court in Padilla v Kentucky is not retroactive. This means that the holding in that case will only apply to cases going forward and not in the past. ALL PCR application in NJ were put on hold until the NJ Supremes decided this case. What doe this mean for the non-citizen with a deportation concern because of a criminal conviction. Well, all hope is not lost. The Court distinguished between situations where counsel or the court simply failed to advise of the immigration consequences of a guilty plea and those where actual bad information was given to the defendant by counsel. In Nunez-Valdez, the defendant was given incorrect information by counsel regarding the immigration consequences of a guilty. The court seemed to leave open PCR applications based on this argument.

In many instances, defendant’s were told that if they pleaded guilty, they would not be deported, and subsequently found out that this was untrue. If this happened to you, then you still may have and argument to make for post-conviction relief