Opinion ID: 2081159
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Guilty Pleas Prior to 1973

Text: As Judge Buchanan noted in his dissent, Turner's plea was entered prior to the 1973 effective date of Indiana Code 35-4.1-1-4(b) [now Ind. Code 35-35-1-3(b)], which first established a statutory requirement that a factual basis be demonstrated before a guilty plea is accepted. Turner, 568 N.E.2d at 1050 (Buchanan, J., dissenting). Of course, even before the enactment of that statute, this Court adopted a number of safeguards to ensure that guilty pleas were entered voluntarily and intelligently. Two cases in particular, Harshman v. State (1953), 232 Ind. 618, 115 N.E.2d 501, and Hathaway v. State (1968), 251 Ind. 374, 241 N.E.2d 240, illustrate the state of the law regarding guilty pleas before legislative action drew a brighter line. In Harshman, this Court allowed the prisoner to withdraw his plea when the record of his guilty plea hearing showed he could not remember whether he took the vehicle he was accused of taking, and the record of that hearing did not contain any other evidence of his guilt. The Court said: As we view it, a plea of guilty tendered by one who in the same breath protests his innocence, or declares he actually does not know whether or not he is guilty, is no plea at all. Certainly it is not a sufficient plea upon which to base a judgment of conviction. No plea of guilty should be accepted when it appears to be doubtful whether it is being intelligently and understandingly made, or when it appears that, for any reason, the plea is wholly inconsistent with the realities of the situation. We may add parenthetically that so far as the record before us discloses, no evidence whatever pointing to appellant's guilt was adduced, either before, during or after the entry of the plea. Harshman, 232 Ind. at 621, 115 N.E.2d at 502. Harshman did not, as the Court of Appeals majority implied, create a factual basis requirement for all guilty pleas taken in this state since 1953. Harshman did establish a rule that a court could not accept a guilty plea from a defendant who had no memory of the crime unless there was additional evidence supporting the defendant's guilt. This is the law today concerning pleas from defendants who claim an inability to recall committing their crimes. Gibson v. State (1986), Ind., 490 N.E.2d 297. Fifteen years later, Hathaway presented this Court with a different question: Is a defendant who admitted he committed the charged crime and never claimed a lack of memory entitled later to withdraw his plea because the State did not present any other evidence that he committed the crime? The Court answered this question in the negative. We held that a plea of guilty ... has been held sufficient foundation upon which to rest a judgment... (citations omitted). [1] Any arguments as to the sufficiency of evidence are not relevant. When the appellant chose to plead guilty and to waive a trial he also chose to waive the protection of having the charge proved against him. Hathaway, 251 Ind. at 378, 241 N.E.2d at 242. Turner argues that Harshman is controlling. Turner's situation differs from Harshman's, however, in important ways. Turner pled guilty as charged. At his guilty plea hearing, he never claimed that he could not remember the crime. Harshman, on the other hand, could not remember if he took the car, but was allowed to plead guilty in the absence of any other evidence. That did not happen here. This case is much more like Hathaway. Actually, we have a little more than we found adequate in Hathaway: a guilty plea and a strong suggestion that Turner gave the court an inculpatory statement. [2] Turner pled guilty as charged  like Hathaway  without a hint of insufficient memory. Like Hathaway, he now alleges insufficient evidence. As we ruled in Hathaway, however, arguments as to the sufficiency of evidence are not relevant, so long as the plea was entered freely and understandingly. Because Turner's plea falls within the rule announced in Hathaway, the post-conviction court was correct in declining to set aside his plea on grounds that the evidence before the original trial court did not satisfy the 1973 statute. We turn now to the remainder of Turner's claims left undecided by the Court of Appeals after it found the factual basis issue dispositive.