Opinion ID: 1277190
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Broce Reflects Sound Guilty Plea Practice

Text: ¶ 40 The rule set forth in Broce balances the conflicting interests of a defendant and the state. On one hand, Broce is a check on defendants who may attempt gamesmanship or seek two kicks at the cat. Consider the facts of this case. Kelty reached a plea agreement with the State in which the State agreed to drop charges and have other charges read in at sentencing. Significantly, this plea agreement reduced Kelty's maximum exposure from 128 years to 61-½ years. Despite these concessions, Kelty still challenges her conviction as multiplicitous. [16] She is demanding an evidentiary hearing, almost six years after the crimes were committed, and more than five years after entering her pleas. If the court of appeals decision in the present case supplied the rule of law, Kelty would receive her fact-finding hearing even though the case has already received exhaustive review by Judge Mason. ¶ 41 Functionally, this hearing would likely be comparable to a small trial. Unlike a trial, however, Kelty would have nothing to lose since she has already negotiated a plea agreement and has already been sentenced. Under the court of appeals analysis, Kelty would receive the benefit of a guilty plea and a trial even though a guilty plea necessarily established her factual guilt, Broce, 488 U.S. at 569, 109 S.Ct. 757; State v. Pohlhammer, 82 Wis.2d 1, 4, 260 N.W.2d 678 (1978) (on motion for re-hearing) (originally reported in 78 Wis.2d 516, 254 N.W.2d 478 (1977)), and waived her rights to a trial, to present evidence, and to make the State present evidence to establish her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Brown, ___ Wis.2d ___, ¶ 67, 716 N.W.2d 906. ¶ 42 On the other hand, Broce ensures adequate protection for the double jeopardy rights of defendants. Defendants may present a double jeopardy challenge if the issue can be resolved on the record, as recognized in Broce. Only the class of double jeopardy defects that cannot be resolved on the record will escape substantive review. This result logically follows from the nature of a guilty plea. Where doubts about the presence of a double jeopardy violation exist, these doubts should be treated no differently than other factual and legal uncertainties, which are also resolved by a guilty plea. Just as a defendant does not know whether the state will be able to prove the factual predicates necessary to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a defendant does not know whether she will succeed on a double jeopardy claim that is heavily enmeshed with disputed and uncertain facts. In both situations, a plea should waive the defendant's right to make the state prove beyond a reasonable doubt the facts necessary to support guilt. ¶ 43 Although Broce limits the right to substantive review of some alleged double jeopardy violations, a defendant may obtain a postconviction fact-finding hearing when she seeks to withdraw a guilty plea because (1) the plea is not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary; or (2) the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel in deciding to enter a plea. Broce, 488 U.S. at 569, 574, 109 S.Ct. 757. In both of these situations, if the defendant's postconviction motion is sufficient, she is entitled to a fact-finding hearing. A guilty plea waives constitutional trial rights, but does not waive Fourteenth Amendment due process rights or the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, which are the rights implicated in a challenge that a guilty plea is not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary, and a challenge that the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel. ¶ 44 A properly conducted plea colloquy assures that the defendant understands the nature of the charges and the elements the state would be required to prove at trial. It also establishes that there is a factual basis for each of the charges against the defendant [17] and that the defendant understands the trial rights she is giving up by entering a plea. Brown, ___ Wis.2d ___, ¶ 35, 716 N.W.2d 906; Bangert, 131 Wis.2d at 261-62, 389 N.W.2d 12. Notwithstanding a guilty plea, when a defendant files a postconviction motion that adequately alleges that the plea was not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary because the plea colloquy was defective in discussing the elements of the crime or the factual basis for multiple charges, or because the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel with regard to a possible multiplicity claim, she is entitled to a fact-finding hearing under well-established law. ¶ 45 Even though a guilty plea relinquishes a defendant's right to a fact-finding hearing on a double jeopardy challenge, nothing about our decision prevents a prosecutor or a court from securing a defendant's express waiver of his or her double jeopardy rights. See Salters v. State, 52 Wis.2d 708, 714, 191 N.W.2d 19 (1971) (recognizing the validity of an express waiver of double jeopardy rights). We believe this is the better practice. Express waivers not only make for a more complete record, but also allow a circuit court and a prosecutor to guard against the possibility of reversible error. They lend greater confidence to convictions secured by guilty pleas, by reducing concerns that a conviction may have resulted in part from some shortcoming or deficiency of defense counsel.