Opinion ID: 1186846
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: denial of motion to defer adjudication of guilt

Text: Defendant's final claim is that the deferred acceptance of guilty plea (DAG plea) procedures should have been available to him. He argues that the lower court's denial of his motion to set aside and defer adjudication of guilt, made after trial and after a finding of guilt, was a denial of due process and equal protection. [9] In State v. Martin, 56 Haw. 292, 535 P.2d 127 (1975), we held that the refusal to entertain a seasonable and proper motion for a DAG plea is judicially improper and denies a defendant due process of law. However, the DAG plea procedure to which we referred in Martin relates only to the disposition of a defendant after a plea of guilty. A motion for deferred acceptance of guilty plea is not seasonably made after a plea of not guilty and a trial resulting in a finding of guilt. [10] It is true that the conditional discharge procedures provided by HRS § 712-1255 (Special Pamphlet, 1975) are available to any person who pleads guilty to or is found guilty of certain drug-related offenses, and are not foreclosed by a not guilty plea followed by a trial and a finding of guilt. But the offense of which defendant Stachler was found guilty, HRS § 712-1247(1)(e) (Promoting a Detrimental Drug in the First Degree), is not listed among those offenses which give rise to conditional discharge procedures under HRS § 712-1255. Thus, it is clear to this court that the legislature has expressed a policy of withholding conditional release in some drug-related offenses, such as the one with which defendant was charged. [11] Although the circuit court denied defendant's motion to defer adjudication of guilt without considering the merits of the motion, since we find that conditional release was not available to defendant, any error was, at most, harmless. Affirmed.