State ex rel. Howard v. Clerk of Court, First Judicial District Court
State ex rel. Howard v. Clerk of Court, First Judicial District Court
Opinion of the Court
GRANTED. Just as with other trial irregularities involving fundamental rights, the defendant’s failure to object or to present evidence of the non-existence of the record does not prevent his raising the lack of a record of the constitutionally required judicial determination that his plea was voluntary in an application for a writ of habe-as corpus, La.Code of Crim.Proc. art. 362, or in a motion for a new trial, La.Code of Crim.Proc. art. 851. State v. Nelson, 379 So.2d 1072 (La.). See La.Code of Crim. Proc. art. 841 official revision comment (b). Accordingly, the trial court is ordered to conduct an evidentiary hearing on relator’s motion.
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
At the multiple offender hearing the state introduced evidence, without objection, of two prior convictions based on guilty pleas. If defendant had objected at that time, the burden would have been on the state to prove the guilty pleas were voluntarily entered with knowledge of the consequences. Defendant’s failure to object at that time does not impliedly waive his right forever to assert any constitutional deficiencies in those guilty pleas, but the failure does relegate defendant to post conviction proceedings, at which the burden
I differ from my colleagues who voted to grant this writ, however, in that I believe a guilt plea is not necessarily constitutionally deficient merely because the three right articulation procedures outlined in State ex rel. Jackson v. Henderson, 260 La. 90, 255 So.2d 85 (1971) was not followed. The decision in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), while rejecting any presumption of a knowledgable and intelligent waiver when the record is silent, did not require any specific articulation of constitutional rights on the record contemporaneous with the plea, although the Court noted that such a practice is highly preferable.
. In Boykin the Court noted:
“A majority of criminal convictions are obtained after a plea of guilty. If these convictions are to be insulated from attack, the trial court is best advised to conduct an on the record examination of the defendant which should include, inter alia, an attempt to satisfy itself that the defendant understands the nature of the charges, his right to a jury trial, the acts sufficient to constitute the offenses of which he is charged and the permissible range of sentences.”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE ex rel. Eddie Lee HOWARD v. CLERK OF COURT, FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
- Status
- Published