VanDoren

Robert Van Doren appeals from his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base (i.e. crack cocaine) and several counts of possession and distribution of cocaine base. 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 (a)(1) and 846. Van Doren was sentenced to the mandatory minimum 20 years imprisonment and 10 years supervised release after the government filed a sentencing enhancement information based on a prior California state court drug conviction. He challenges the voluntariness of his plea because the district court did not directly ask whether he had been threatened. He also challenges the use of the prior California conviction, claiming that the resulting imposition of the mandatory minimum was the product of vindictive prosecution following his earlier refusal to plead guilty. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

FACTS

Robert Van Doren is a 70-year old man with prostate cancer who was arrested on May 31, 1996 after police observed him engage in a transaction to buy crack cocaine. Law enforcement authorities had advance notice of this deal based on conversations overheard between Van Doren and Derrick Darnell Hines through a wiretap of Hines’ telephone.…