Opinion ID: 1799214
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Did the trial court err in allowing a blank Waiver of Rights and Entry of Guilty Plea to be admitted into evidence as proof of a Second Offense conviction of D.U.I.?

Text: ¶ 12. McIlwain asserts that the State failed to prove his conviction of D.U.I. Second. In attempting to prove the conviction, the State presented an abstract of McIlwain's prior court record with an attached blank waiver of rights and entry of guilty plea form. At trial, Stephanie West, Wayne County Court Clerk, testified to the accuracy of the abstracts. ¶ 13. Miss. Code Ann. § 13-1-77 and M.R.E. 1005 specifically provide that abstracts of records are admissible to prove prior convictions. As stated in DeBussi v. State, 453 So.2d 1030, 1031 (Miss. 1984): Mississippi's position on proof of prior convictions respects the substance of the best evidence rule: If the actual judgment of conviction is not introduced, it may only be proved by documents accorded equivalent evidentiary weight by statute. We have regularly upheld sentences under the habitual criminal statutes where the proof of prior convictions was made by certified copies of the judgments of conviction. Baker v. State, 394 So.2d 1376 (Miss. 1981); Jackson v. State, 418 So.2d 827 (Miss. 1982); Crawley v. State, 423 So.2d 128 (Miss. 1982). This accords with the basic principle that the best evidence of a conviction is the judgment of conviction. McGowan v. State, 269 So.2d 645 (Miss. 1972); Brown v. State, 222 Miss. 863, 77 So.2d 694 (1955). DeBussi, 453 So.2d at 1031. ¶ 14. Abstracts of court records, when properly certified, are clearly allowed to prove prior convictions. The introduction of the blank waiver of rights and entry of guilty plea form is irrelevant to the proof of the prior Second offense for D.U.I. We find no substance to this issue.