Opinion ID: 887356
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Voluntariness Standard

Text: ¶ 20 While this Court's interpretation of the Montana Constitution need not march lock-step with the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of the United States Constitution, this Court has a coordinate responsibility to guarantee the rights enshrined in the United States Constitution. This Court cannot adopt a lower standard to protect any right in the United States Constitution than the United States Supreme Court has recognized. U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 2 (This Constitution ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby....). ¶ 21 The United States Supreme Court considers a defendant's plea voluntary only when the defendant is fully aware of the direct consequences, including the actual value of any commitments made to him by the court, prosecutor, or his own counsel.... Brady v. United States (1970), 397 U.S. 742, 755, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1472, 25 L.Ed.2d 747, 760 (quoting Shelton v. United States (5th Cir.1957), 246 F.2d 571, 572 n. 2 (en banc), rev'd on other grounds, 356 U.S. 26, 78 S.Ct. 563, 2 L.Ed.2d 579 (1958)) (quotations omitted). If the court, the prosecutor, his own counsel, or some other party, induced the plea, however slightly, by threats or promises; misrepresentation, including unfulfilled or unfulfillable promises; or promises ... having no proper relationship to the prosecutor's business (e.g. bribes), that evidence indicates involuntariness. Brady, 397 U.S. at 753, 755, 90 S.Ct. at 1471-72, 25 L.Ed.2d at 759-60 (quoting Shelton, 246 F.2d at 572 n. 2) (quotations omitted). Further, the defendant must be mentally competent to enter a plea and any medication he is taking must not make him mentally incompetent to plead. See, e.g., Godinez v. Moran (1993), 509 U.S. 389, 394 n. 3, 396 n. 6, 398-99, 113 S.Ct. 2680, 2684 n. 3, 2685 n. 6, 2686, 125 L.Ed.2d 321, 329 n. 3, 330 n. 6, 331-32 (equating the mental competency for entering a voluntary plea with the mental competency for standing trial, but recognizing that some state courts have held that different standards apply); Godinez, 509 U.S. at 410-12, 416-17, 113 S.Ct. at 2692-93, 2695-96, 125 L.Ed.2d at 339-40, 343-44 (Blackmun, J., dissenting) (recognizing that medication can affect one's mental competence and disagreeing with the majority both on the standard and whether the medication made Moran mentally incompetent). ¶ 22 We have held a plea of guilty will be deemed involuntary where it appears that the defendant was laboring under such a strong inducement, fundamental mistake, or serious mental condition that the possibility exists he may have pled guilty to a crime of which he is innocent. Miller, 248 Mont. at 197, 810 P.2d at 310. Requiring a strong inducement before allowing a defendant to withdraw his plea is less protective of individual rights than requiring any inducement, however slight, as a sufficient basis for withdrawal of a plea. Since the Miller standard is less protective of individual rights than the federal standard, we overrule it and enforce the aforementioned federal standard for voluntariness. ¶ 23 Although two of the criteria from the Huttinger test (the adequacy of colloquy and the existence of plea bargain) bear on the question of voluntariness, numerous other case-specific considerations may also bear on that question. Because the voluntariness test subsumes the relevant elements of the Huttinger test, we relegate that test to history.