Johnson v. State
Johnson v. State
Opinion
The appellant, Cedric Dale Johnson, appeals from the trial court's summary dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief filed pursuant to Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P., in *Page 86 which he attacked his 1992 guilty plea conviction for assault in the second degree and his resulting sentence, as a habitual felony offender, of life in prison. The appellant's conviction was affirmed on direct appeal to this court, and a certificate of judgment was issued on September 30, 1992. The appellant filed the Rule 32 petition that is the subject of this appeal in the trial court on June 29, 1995.
In his petition, the appellant claims (1) that his guilty plea was invalid, because, he says, it was entered involuntarily and without knowledge of the nature of the charge and consequences of the plea; (2) that his trial counsel was ineffective; (3) that the trial court was without jurisdiction to render a judgment or to impose sentence; (4) that his sentence exceeded the maximum allowed by law; and (5) that he had newly discovered evidence that required that his conviction and sentence be vacated.
We address the appellant's five claims below.
A trial court lacks jurisdiction to accept a plea of guilty to an offense not encompassed by the charge in the indictment.Ross v. State,
In this case, the allegations in the appellant's Rule 32 petition were insufficient to warrant further proceedings. Rule 32.6(b), Ala.R.Crim.P. "The petitioner shall have the burden of pleading and proving by a preponderance of the evidence the facts necessary to entitle the petitioner to relief." Rule 32.3, Ala.R.Crim.P. The appellant, however, failed to allege with factual specificity that, under the facts surrounding theoffense for which he was convicted, assault in the second degree was not a lesser included offense of murder.
In Jones v. State,
Clearly, then, under particular circumstances, assault in the second degree may be a lesser included offense of attempted murder. The appellant, however, failed completely to allege any of the specific facts surrounding the offense for which he was convicted, and he did not demonstrate in his petition, even when every factual allegation therein is taken to be true, that, under the facts of his case, assault in the second degree was not a lesser included offense of attempted murder. The appellant apparently believed *Page 87 that, as a matter of law, assault in the second degree can never be a lesser included offense of attempted murder, when, as a matter of fact, the former can be a lesser included offense of the latter under the appropriate circumstances.
When making a determination of whether one offense is a lesser included offense of another, the facts of each case must be taken into account, and courts should not simply consider the potential relationship of the two offenses in abstract terms of the defining statutes while ignoring the facts of the case and the indictment under which the defendant was charged.Ingram v. State,
The state, in its answer and motion to dismiss the appellant's petition, correctly argued that the appellant's claim that the trial court was without jurisdiction to accept his plea of guilty to assault in the second degree "is a bare allegation with no supporting grounds, [and] thus lacks the specificity required by Rule 32.6(b), Ala.R.Crim.P." (C. 31.) See Brooks v. State,
Because all claims in the appellant's petition were either insufficiently specific or precluded, the trial court could summarily dispose of the appellant's petition without holding a hearing and without making written findings of fact. Rule 32.7(c), Ala.R.Crim.P.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
All Judges concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Cedric Dale Johnson v. State.
- Cited By
- 17 cases
- Status
- Published