Opinion ID: 2395215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: john dewitt mcdowell

Text: Between 1 December 1969 and 29 October 1980 John Dewitt McDowell submitted eight (8) guilty pleas involving nine (9) felony counts. Subsequently he was convicted in a jury trial of receiving stolen property and sentenced to serve not less than one (1) year nor more than three (3) years in the penitentiary. He was also convicted of uttering a forged instrument and sentenced to not less than two (2) nor more than (3) years confinement. He was found to be an habitual criminal and the punishment for receiving stolen property was enhanced to a life term. On 6 October 1983 these convictions were affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals. On 5 December 1983 the defendant's application for permission to appeal was denied by this Court. On a subsequent date defendant filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief attacking his habitual criminal conviction. He charged ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. It is pertinent to note that one of the complaints alleging ineffective counsel charged that one of his eight (8) prior convictions utilized in the habitual criminal proceedings resulted from an illegal guilty plea. His complaint was that his trial counsel failed to file a motion which was argued on that issue and therefore it could not be reargued on appeal. Counsel was appointed in the trial court and an evidentiary hearing held. The trial judge filed written findings of fact and conclusions of law and denied the petition on 18 May 1984. This action too was appealed and on 10 April 1985 the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. Permission to appeal was denied by this Court on 8 July 1985. On 30 December 1987 defendant filed a second petition for post-conviction relief. This petition was devoted entirely to the eight (8) guilty plea submissions noted heretofore and did not apply in any fashion to his habitual criminal conviction. The petition contained a blank allegation that the trial court `addressed the petitioner personally in open court' and informed him of the constitutional rights that he was waiving and the significant consequences of the guilty pleas, with the exception that no mention whatever was made of the right not to be compelled to incriminate himself. It charged that the failure of the trial judge to advise him of his constitutional right against self-incrimination rendered the convictions on these guilty pleas void. Upon motion of the State, consideration of the petition and on the record, the trial judge dismissed the petition for post-conviction relief without an evidentiary hearing. The trial court found that petitioner's prior petition for post-conviction relief was heard and denied in May 1984. He found that the prior petition did not mention any of the irregularities complained of in the latter petition. He held that the petition was barred by T.C.A. § 40-30-102 and that the grounds stated in the petition were waived by failure to raise them within the seven (7) years which had elapsed since the last of the convictions complained of. He held that the rights petitioner claimed were violated had been in existence prior to each of the pleas and thus were not valid grounds for complaint. The defendant filed a notice of appeal and a motion for preparation of the record and appointment of counsel. Citing T.C.A. § 40-30-109 the trial judge found the petition was competently drafted and that the pleadings, files and records of the court conclusively showed that the petitioner was not entitled to any relief. He denied the motion for appointment of counsel and the preparation of the transcript at State expense. On 14 September 1988, in a split decision, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court. They held that the petition was not barred by T.C.A. § 40-30-102 and remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing. In conjunction with the trial court's finding that petitioner's complaint had been waived, the majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals found: The petitioner seeks to set aside convictions unrelated to those challenged in his first petition on the grounds that `no mention whatever was made [by the trial court] of the right not to be compelled to incriminate himself' and that there was a failure, in the prior convictions, to advise him of his `constitutional right against self-incrimination.' See State v. Mackey, 553 S.W.2d 337, 341 (Tenn. 1977). In Rounsaville v. Evatt, 733 S.W.2d 506, 508 (Tenn. 1987), our Supreme Court mandated that in order to assure that guilty pleas are intelligent and voluntary, the trial judge must provide warnings against, among other things, one's constitutional right not to be a witness against himself. The trial court, in this instance, must therefore determine on a factual basis whether the petitioner entered valid guilty pleas in accordance with the Mackey guidelines. The fact that the prior convictions as well as the triggering convictions took place in Shelby County does not mean that an attack of the latter must necessarily include any allegations of infirmity in the former. Judge Daughtrey, in dissent, saw no reason why the petition filed by McDowell in 1984 could not have included the current claim, assuming that it had any validity.