People v. Wilson CA2/7

DISCUSSION

A plea agreement is in the nature of a contract and subject to the same rules of construction as other contracts. (People v. Kim (2011) 193 Cal.App.4th 1355, 1360 [“[p]lea bargains are generally governed by a specialized form of the law of contracts”].) Negotiated pleas have a constitutional dimension in addition to contractual qualities: A criminal defendant’s due process rights are implicated when a plea agreement is not implemented according to its terms, and the defendant is entitled to some remedy. (People v. Knox (2004) 123 Cal.App.4th 1453, 1459.) If a negotiated plea is accepted by the prosecuting attorney and approved by the trial court, the defendant cannot be sentenced on the plea to a harsher punishment than that specified in the plea agreement. (§ 1192.5; People v. Masloski (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1212, 1217.) To be sure, statutory and due process concerns are not “offended by minor deviations from the bargain; to warrant relief, the variance must be “‘significant” in the context of the plea bargain as a whole.’” (Kim, at p. 1359; see also People v. Brown (2007) 147 Cal.App.4th 1213, 1221-1222.) When, after a negotiated plea agreement, a trial court imposes…