Opinion ID: 1839711
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Should Review of Guilty Pleas Begin in the Trial Court?

Text: The question of whether review of guilty pleas should begin in the trial court appears to be one of first impression in this Court. There are several types of requests for review which arise from pleas of guilty. One such type relies on facts not contained in the record. Often involved are allegations contradicting the voluntariness of the plea. Logically matters of this type must be reviewed in the trial court because it requires fresh testimony not a matter of prior record. There is one order of this Court which specifies that where the voluntariness of a plea of guilty is involved requiring evidence not on the record, that case should begin in the trial court. The order of this Court in People v Kenneth Carlton, Jr., Supreme Court No 51,240, was as follows: The People of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff, vs. 51240 Kenneth Carlton Jr. Defendant. In this cause an application is filed by defendant for leave to appeal from the order of the court of appeals denying leave to take a delayed appeal, and an answer in the nature of affidavits having been filed by plaintiff, On Order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal from the court of appeals is considered and the same is DENIED for the reason that no justification therefor is presented. The cause is REMANDED to the circuit court of Bay county to assume jurisdiction and to make a determination upon a separate record of the voluntariness of the written confession and of the plea of guilty made by petitioner on December 20, 1960. At this hearing, after due notice to the prosecuting attorney, the defendant Carlton may take the stand and testify for the limited purpose of making of record his version of the facts and circumstances under which the confession was obtained and the plea of guilty made. By so doing, the defendant does not waive his right to decline to take the stand on trial in chief, if retrial is ordered, nor does he waive any of the other rights stemming from his choice not to testify. If the trial judge, on the basis of the hearing and record made before him, determines that the plea of guilty was involuntarily made, he shall enter an order vacating the sentence and the plea of guilty and the defendant shall be rearraigned and required to plead anew to the information. The said order shall constitute a final judgment for purposes of review. July 15, 1965. In commenting on this order in People v Carlton, 5 Mich App 20, 23 (1966), the Court of Appeals said: The Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court to determine the voluntariness of defendant's confession and his plea of guilty. The lower court was instructed to vacate the sentence and plea of guilty, if, after hearing, he determined that the plea was involuntarily made. The order also provided that the order of the lower court would constitute a final judgment for purposes of review. See also People v Horvath, 25 Mich App 649-650 (1970):     the proper forum for entertaining a post-plea allegation of involuntariness not supported by the record is the trial court. People v Dorner, 24 Mich App 306, 308 (1970); People v Kenny Smith, 20 Mich App 307-308 (1969). There are other modern cases involving the review of the voluntariness of a guilty plea with facts outside the record in which review was begun in the trial court, though the issue of where such review should begin was not raised. See People v Rufus Williams, 386 Mich 277 (1971); People v Roger Johnson, 386 Mich 305 (1971); People v Goldman, 245 Mich 578 (1929); People v Williams, 225 Mich 133 (1923); People v Taylor, 383 Mich 338 (1970); [2] People v Kobrzycki, 242 Mich 44 (1928). [3] See also People v Bumpus, 355 Mich 374 (1959) where there was both the question of voluntariness of the plea including allegations outside the record and the constitutional question of right to counsel. People v Skropski, 292 Mich 461 (1940). In People v Vasquez, 303 Mich 340 (1942) the motion to withdraw was largely bottomed on an affidavit that the sheriff advised the best thing for me to do was to waive examination and plead guilty    my punishment would be placed on probation   . (303 Mich 340, 342.) There is little question that the old practice was to review guilty pleas by writ of error to the Supreme Court, even in the voluntary cases. Edwards v People, 39 Mich 760 (1878); Henning v People, 40 Mich 733 (1879); Clark v People, 44 Mich 308 (1880); People v Ferguson, 48 Mich 41 (1882); People v Coveyou, 48 Mich 353 (1882); People v Lepper, 51 Mich 196 (1883); People v Ellsworth, 68 Mich 496 (1888)  voluntariness plus statutory construction. Bayliss v People, 46 Mich 221 (1881) is interesting because on the question of voluntariness, a writ of certiorari was issued to trial judge and he made a return on the extent of investigation he made, showing that the case might well have begun there. There were other assigned errors. The recent order in Carlton instead of considering the merits on appeal, as these cases do, remanded the merits to the trial court. We hold all cases that involve showing matters not already on the record such as cases claiming involuntary pleas based on alleged beatings or inducements must first be brought to the trial court for review. Carlton is authority for this and overrules, if sub silentio, the earlier cases following a different practice. [4] In addition to these cases involving testimony not on the record there is a strong practice of bringing cases for review of guilty plea decisions first to the trial court, although there are some that have been brought first to the Court of Appeals. Bumpus suggests another group of cases where the review was started in the trial court. There are several that raise the constitutional question of right to counsel along with the question of whether the plea was understandingly given. People v Dunn, 380 Mich 693 (1968)  right to counsel and uninformed as to nature of accusation. People v Vester, 309 Mich 409 (1944)  right to counsel and misunderstanding of legal elements of crime. These cases involve questions on the record. There are at least three other cases where the issue should appear on the record. In People v Lang, 381 Mich 393 (1968) the question was one of statutory interpretation of the right of a parole board to flop the defendant in an indeterminate sentence after parole revocation. In In re Palmer, 371 Mich 656 (1963) and People v Parshay, 379 Mich 7 (1967) the question was simply whether the defendant was informed as to his constitutional right to counsel. In People v Ferguson, 383 Mich 645 (1970), the defendant alleged he was uninformed as to the maximum penalty. There are two cases raising the same question as the case at bar, namely did the trial court investigate the truth of the plea, in which the review was initiated in the trial court. The first is the lead case in the field, People v Barrows, 358 Mich 267 (1959). The question of whether the trial court made a satisfactory investigation is, of course, a matter on the record. The second case is People v Stearns, 380 Mich 704 (1968). There in addition to the question of the court satisfying itself as to the truth of defendant's guilty plea were questions of right to appointed counsel and understanding of the accusation. A somewhat similar case is People v Merhige, 212 Mich 601 (1920). There the claimed error was that the defendant did not really plead guilty, and that the judge should have recognized he really was not guilty and should have so advised him. There are also a few modern cases that were brought directly in the appellate court. People v Jaworski, 387 Mich 21 (1972) and People v Butler, 387 Mich 1 (1972) involve failure of the pleataking court to advise as to constitutional rights. People v Hobdy, 380 Mich 686 (1968) relates to no express waiver of counsel. People v Dudley, 173 Mich 389 (1912) challenged the jurisdiction of the plea-taking court and the constitutionality of the probation statute. People v Fisher, 237 Mich 504 (1927) raised the statutory interpretation question as to whether on revocation of probation the court could sentence to 7-12 months after having imposed a fine as a condition of probation. There are two interesting cases used by the Court of Appeals to preclude filing of claims of appeal from revocation of probation. [5] The people's brief also states Neither can there be a direct appeal of probation violation and consequent revocation: Calhoun v Macomb Circuit Judge (1968), 15 Mich App 416, 422-423. This was fortified by People v Stanley (1969), 18 Mich App 596, 597. In both cases appeal as of right was denied and in People v Dixon, 18 Mich App 591-592 (1969), the Court said    judgments entered after probation revocation are not appealable as of right    citing Calhoun. In Calhoun the Court said there was an appeal as of right but it must be within 60 days after being placed on probation (15 Mich 416-417). Upon consideration of all of these cases, we find that commencing post plea review of guilty pleas in the trial court is the preferable policy. Such review by motion has the advantage of giving the trial judge the opportunity to consider whether or not his prior and complained of action was correct or not, and, if not, to take necessary steps to correct it. Such steps probably would be to vacate the sentence and permit the withdrawal of the plea and proceed afresh. Not only would the trial judge have the opportunity to consider whether or not his action was correct, as he would when a trial ruling was objected to, but the appellate court would receive the case similar to a trial case after the trial court had ruled on a specific exception with adversary arguments if necessary. Such review by motion at the trial court level would have the additional benefit of being brought before the original trial court without the delay and expense of initiating appellate procedures. Beneficial as commencement of review in the trial court may be, there are certain obvious cases where doing so would be futile and non-productive. Where for example the basis for review has already been brought to the attention of the trial judge and he has ruled on it adversely or has on the record refused to consider it, it would be a patent waste of time and a useless act to require the defendant to bring the matter to the attention of the trial court again. With the exception of such cases as the forementioned we hold that proper procedure requires commencing post plea review in the trial court. This returns consideration of correction of error, if that is appropriate, or the withdrawal of the guilty plea after sentence, to the sound discretion of the trial court. People v Vasquez, 303 Mich 340, 342 (1942); People v Goldman, 245 Mich 578, 583-584 (1929). Furthermore, in addition to fundamental fairness to the trial court and economy and speed of operations, this will permit the trial court, if it determines that is proper, to vacate the plea and set a speedy date for trial. One further point in passing. The motion in the trial court to review the taking of the guilty plea is not a substitute for defendant's constitutional appeal as a matter of right. Const 1963, art 1, § 20. If the trial court denies the motion to review or vacate, then the appeal as a matter of right lies if the proper steps are taken. As already indicated such a motion should often obviate the necessity for an appeal as of right because the trial court in many instances will be able to correct the alleged error or vacate the plea. The review in the instant case more properly should have been begun in the trial court. However, since it has already been argued in two courts, since heretofore there has been no definitive opinion from this Court on the proper practice, and since it would work an injustice on the defendant to be remanded to the trial court at this point without consideration of the merits, we will exercise our inherent right to review sua sponte. People v Dorrikas, 354 Mich 303 (1958); People v Farmer, 380 Mich 198 (1968).