Opinion ID: 498404
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Conduct an On-the-Record Inquiry

Text: 29 Stamps claims that admissions made by his trial counsel constituted a de facto confession, and, therefore, the trial court should have conducted an on-the-record inquiry into whether the de facto guilty plea was voluntary and knowing. In Wiley v. Sowders, 647 F.2d 642 (6th Cir.1981), this court held that an attorney may not stipulate facts which amount to the functional equivalent of a guilty plea, and an attorney may not admit his client's guilt contrary to his client's earlier entered plea of not guilty unless the defendant unequivocally understands the consequences of the admission. Wiley, 647 F.2d at 649. That holding was later limited in a decision by this court concerning a separate habeas petition brought by the brother to the petitioner in Wiley. In that proceeding, Wiley II, this court held that while an on-the-record inquiry by the trial court to determine whether a criminal defendant has consented to an admission of guilt during closing arguments represents the preferred practice ... we did not hold in Wiley, and we do not now hold, that due process requires such a practice. Wiley v. Sowders, 669 F.2d 386, 389 (6th Cir.1982) (per curiam). 30 Further, the state proved the convictions at trial through the testimony of the Christian County, Kentucky, court clerk. Stamps' counsel only stipulated to what could be easily proven, and in closing argument simply admitted to what had already been proven. As earlier noted, Stamps' trial counsel was simply following a strategy to provide his client with the most lenient sentence possible, a strategy which worked and which has been recognized as proper by the Kentucky Supreme Court. Meadows v. Commonwealth, 550 S.W.2d 511 (Ky.1977). Therefore, the failure of the trial court to conduct an on-the-record inquiry concerning the knowing and voluntary consent of Stamps to his trial counsel's stipulations and admissions was not error.