Opinion ID: 1807967
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Multiple Offender Conviction

Text: Defendant argues that the court erred in finding him a multiple offender. He contends that he was not properly Boykinized before he pled guilty to the 1978 offense of simple robbery, and accordingly the prior conviction cannot be used to convict him of being a second offender. Age pled guilty to simple robbery in 1978, at which time he was sentenced to two years in parish prison. In the multiple offender hearing, the state sought to use this prior guilty plea conviction, to have defendant adjudicated a second offender. At the hearing the state introduced the minute entry of the 1978 guilty plea proceedings and a waiver of rights form bearing the defendant's signature. Defendant objected to the use of the form to prove that he knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived his constitutional rights, contending that the state must produce a contemporaneously recorded transcript of the Boykin colloquy with the trial judge. It is further argued that even if the form is considered, it does not establish that the defendant was properly Boykinized prior to the acceptance of his guilty plea. It is now well settled that a guilty plea is constitutionally valid only if the record evidences a knowing and voluntary waiver of the constitutional rights that are being waived, particularly the right to trial by jury, the right to confront accusers and the privilege against self-incrimination. Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). State v. Robicheaux, 412 So.2d 1313 (La.1982); State v. Halsell, 403 So.2d 688 (La.1981); State v. Bowick, 403 So.2d 673 (La.1981); State v. Williams, 384 So.2d 779 (La.1980); State v. Bolten, 379 So.2d 722 (La.1980); State v. Lewis, 367 So.2d 1155 (La.1979); State ex rel. Jackson v. Henderson, 260 La. 90, 255 So.2d 85 (1971). In the present case the state introduced only the minutes of the guilty plea proceeding and a waiver of rights form. The minutes show merely that the court interrogated the defendant as to whether he understood his constitutional rights, the court explained the same and the defendant answered in the affirmative. This entry falls far short of establishing that the defendant was specifically informed of his right to trial by jury, his right to confront his accusers and his privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, and that he knowingly and voluntarily waived those rights. Complementing the minutes with the substance of the waiver of rights form used in this instance, the record remains deficient insofar as reflecting an adequate Boykinization. The waiver of rights form is deficient in that it did not adequately inform defendant of his right to trial by jury, nor did it adequately inform him of his privilege against self-incrimination. The form is quoted in full in the original opinion and will be quoted here only insofar as it is pertinent to this discussion. As concerns the advisement of the right to trial by jury, the form only provides that the defendant had a right to trial and free appeal if convicted and that he waives right to trial and free appeal by entering plea of guilty. Thus, the form does not affirmatively show that defendant was either advised of his right to a jury trial or that he waived that right. A record only evidencing a general advisement of the right to trial and the waiver thereof does not affirmatively show that the defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to trial by jury. State v. Santiago, 416 So.2d 524 (La.1982). The deficiency in that advice is not remedied by the inclusion of the seventh numbered paragraph of the form (well after the right to trial advice in paragraphs one and two) which refers to the waiver of the right to object to the way the jury will be selected to try case. Such advice is meaningless to one who has not been informed that he has a right to a trial by a jury. As concerns the advisement of the privilege against self-incrimination defendant was only informed that by pleading guilty waives right against self-incrimination. The form does not show that the defendant was informed that he had the right to remain silent at trial. It was held in State v. Martin, 382 So.2d 933 (La.1980), and recently reaffirmed in State v. Robicheaux & Powell, 412 So.2d 1313 (La.1982), that an advisement of the privilege against self-incrimination in which the defendant was not told that the privilege applied at his trial was inadequate because it failed to inform the defendant of his right to stand trial without being forced to testify against himself; because the choice to stand trial is the crux of the decision to plead guilty; because an accused cannot make this choice intelligently if he is unaware of the rights he may exercise at trial; and because the record did not show in any way that the defendant intended to waive his right not to testify against himself at trial. Defendant was not informed of his right to stand trial without being forced to testify against himself, and, therefore, the record does not evidence a knowing and voluntary waiver of that right. Therefore, because the record does not affirmatively show that the defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to trial by jury and his privilege against self-incrimination, the guilty plea conviction should not have been used as a basis for the multiple offender charge against him. In view of our holding here that the record, including the rights form, does not show that defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived his Boykin rights, we need not consider the argument that the waiver of rights form should not have been considered at all. [2]