Commonwealth v. Jackson
Commonwealth v. Jackson
Opinion of the Court
Opinion b y
Appellant, Bernard Jackson, was indicted for the murder of Charles Davis and, on February 25, 1972, entered a plea of guilty. Following certification by the Commonwealth that the charge rose no higher than voluntary manslaughter, an on-the-record colloquy was conducted, as required by Pa. R. Crim. P. 319. Having concluded “after inquiry of [appellant] that the plea [was] voluntarily and understandingly made”,
The trial court conducted an extensive colloquy
“Q. In this case, you would be admitting, by entering a plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter, that on April 25, 1970, in Philadelphia, you unlawfully and deliberately and wilfully killed Charles Davis. In this case, you would be admitting, as I understand the evidence from having conferred with the District Attorney and your attorney together, you would be admitting that you shot Charles Davis, which caused his death. Now, your plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter would be an admission that you shot him deliberately and intentionally. Do you understand that? A. Yes, sir. Q. By pleading guilty to this charge, you would be admitting that the shooting and death were not accidental. You would also be admitting that the shooting and death were not done in the course of you defending yourself from serious bodily harm or a threat of death against yourself by Charles Davis. Do you understand? A. Yes, sir. Q. By pleading guilty you are giving up both those defenses, the defense of saying the killing was accidental and the defense of saying you were acting to protect yourself from serious bodily harm or death. Do you understand that? A. Yes. Q. By pleading guilty to the crime of voluntary manslaughter you are admitting that you deliberately and wilfully shot Charles Davis, knowing that the shooting could cause serious bodily harm or death. The element that reduces the crime from murder to voluntary manslaughter is the fact that the circumstances may have provoked you in some way, causing you to be angry or outraged by something that in some way existed. Nevertheless, even with that indication, the plea of guilty admits you deliberately shot him, knowing it could cause him serious bodily harm or death. Do you understand? A. Yes, sir.”
The record unequivocally reveals that the trial court thoroughly advised appellant that his plea of guilty is an admission that appellant intentionally fired the gun. Moreover, the court carefully explained that a plea of guilty negates any claim of self-defense or accidental shooting. Appellant acknowledged his understanding of the effect of the plea and persisted in his decision to plead guilty.
We must conclude, therefore, that appellant understood the nature of the offense charged and that his admitted acts constituted the offense with which he was charged. This is not a case in which an accused pleaded “ ‘guilty’ from one side of his mouth and ‘not guilty’ from the other side.” Commonwealth v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 202, 269 A. 2d 709, 711 (1970). Rather, as the trial court here accurately noted, this is a case “where the defendant by his plea voluntarily and intelligently negates a prior self-serving statement to the police” and admits that the shooting was intentional. Appellant’s guilty plea was voluntarily and understandingly entered and properly received by the trial court.
Judgment of sentence affirmed.
Pa. R. Grim. P. 819.
Appellant also contends that the trial court should have accepted a plea of guilty to murder generally, rather than a plea of murder certified not to rise higher than voluntary manslaughter. He urges that had a plea to murder generally been accepted, the trial court could have found appellant guilty of involuntary manslaughter. This claim is an inaccurate statement of the law and must be rejected. It is clear that on an indictment charging murder, a defendant “might [be] convicted of murder of the first or second degree, or of voluntary manslaughter, but not of involuntary manslaughter.” Hilands v. Commonwealth, 114 Pa. 372, 380-81, 6 Atl. 267, 268 (1886). See also Commonwealth v. Comber, 374 Pa. 570, 573-74, 97 A. 2d 343, 344 (1953) and cases cited therein.
See Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S. Ct. 1709 (1969) ; McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 89 S. Ct 1166 (1969) ; Majko v. United States, 457 F. 2d 790 (7th Cir. 1972) ; United States v. Cody, 438 F. 2d 287 (8th Cir. 1971) ; Woodward v. United States, 426 F. 2d 959 (3d Cir. 1970) ; Commonwealth v. Maddox, 450 Pa. 406, 300 A. 2d 503 (1973) ; Commonwealth ex rel. West v. Rundle, 428 Pa. 102, 237 A. 2d 196 (1968) ; ABA Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to The Function of the Trial Judge §4.2 (Approved Draft, 1972) ; ABA Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Pleas of Guilty §1.4 (Approved Draft, 1968).
The colloquy in the instant case is even more extensive than the ones approved by this Court in Commonwealth v. Maddox, 450 Pa. 406, 300 A. 2d 503 (1973) and Commonwealth v. Martin, 445 Pa. 49, 282 A. 2d 241 (1971).
Concurring Opinion
1 agree that the colloquy conducted by the trial court in this ease was exemplary and that the record demonstrates that the guilty plea was properly accepted because the plea was voluntarily and understandingly made. I take exception, however, to the court’s assumption (see footnote 3) that, as a matter of law in this Commonwealth, there is a requirement that the trial court make a determination that there is a factual basis for a guilty plea. While I believe that this is not the law, it is my view that this court should impose such a requirement by an appropriate amendment to Eule 319 (a) of our Eules of Criminal Procedure.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Commonwealth v. Jackson, Appellant
- Cited By
- 59 cases
- Status
- Published