Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

As you noted, by entering a plea you waive your right to appeal anything that happened before entry of the plea; the deadline to file a notice of appeal was 60 days after sentencing, which is long gone.

The only way to attack a ten year old plea would be through a writ petition, but your chances of getting a writ granted after ten years are slim to none. If you could show the prosecution withheld evidence or some other government misconduct that would have prevented you from presenting a defense, there might be something to pursue.

Even if you found an attorney who thought there was a basis for filing a writ petition, a reviewing court is going to look at a number of factors, including your reasons for waiting ten years to challenge this conviction and the difficulty the prosecution would face in bringing the case to trial after all this time.

You don't 'defend' a charge you were already convicted of, nor do you 'overturn' or appeal a ten year old conviction. You don't get a 'do over'. At best you file for expungement. Many convictions can be 'expunged' by proper application and Motion to the court, but only if there was no prison time served or even sentenced, if it was not for certain sex and DV crimes, if you completed all terms of probation, and if you have no new charges. If successful, the conviction would be retroactively withdrawn and the charges dismissed. That does not 'remove' the conviction, but merely changes the record to show 'conviction reversed and dismissed by expungement'. If expunged, you would be able to say 'no' to conviction on most employment applications. If you�re serious about doing so, and you think you qualify, feel free to contact me for the legal help you'll need.