Opinion ID: 2445256
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: appellate review of violations

Text: It is obvious from this review of the requirements of Boykin , Mackey , McClintock and Rule 11, Tenn.R.Crim.P. that there is much duplication. It is also apparent that the Boykin requirements are grounded upon federal constitutional law, that Mackey procedure and advice is based upon both constitutional and supervisory authority requirements, that Rule 11 also has a mixed genesis, and that McClintock pronounces a supervisory authority mandate. Whether a particular subject of advice rises to the level of being constitutionally required is important if it is omitted from the litany, because the procedures available to correct constitutional errors in the conviction process do not stop with direct appeal but also where not waived and timely filed include post-conviction petitions. Non-constitutional error cannot be addressed under the Post-Conviction Procedure Act. T.C.A. Section 40-30-105. Further the applicable harmless error rule differs, as will be pointed out hereinafter. While we have alluded to review of Boykin violations as being subject to substantial compliance and harmless error scrutiny in State v. Frazier, supra , we did not mean to adopt a substantial compliance doctrine that would be anything less than full compliance with the heretofore set out requirements. While absolutely literal compliance with the advice to be given is not required, expressing the sense of the substance of the required advice to a guilty-pleading defendant is. That would be substantial compliance. To further explain substantial compliance, we cite these examples. If the required advice has been correctly given by defendant's counsel, in open court in the presence of the defendant and same appears of record, that is substantial compliance, although the trial judge did not repeat the same advice. It is substantial compliance if the sense of the rights and information set out in the litany is completely stated to the guilty-pleading defendant, on the record, even though the trial judge does not use the exact script suggested. It is substantial compliance if the entire litany of rights and other required explanatory information is communicated in open court simultaneously to multiple defendants in the presence of their respective attorneys, so long as the number involved is not so great as to make individual understanding unlikely; and provided that each defendant is addressed individually to establish on the record the understanding and agreement of each defendant. Substantial compliance is not error. Where there is substantial compliance the root purpose of the prescribed litany has been served and the guilty plea passes due process scrutiny because it was made voluntarily and understandingly. In the context of patent omissions from the advice litany, the test which this court approves is the appropriate harmless error test. See, State v. Newsome, 778 S.W.2d 34 (Tenn. 1989). Its validity and reasonableness could not be better illustrated than it is in this case at bar. Clearly Neal was not expressly advised of all of his rights as required by Boykin , but he testified upon the hearing upon his post-conviction petition that he knew those constitutional rights. Since the purpose of the litany of rights is to insure that the defendant is aware of them when he or she gives them up, no possible harm to Neal is demonstrated. He complains of not having been advised that the resulting judgment of conviction could be used in a subsequent proceeding to enhance the punishment for subsequent offenses, and testified that he was unfamiliar with the provisions of the Habitual Criminal Act, previously found in T.C.A. Sections 39-1-801, et seq. However, this advice was not required by mandate of this court per McClintock until ten years after his guilty plea; and, not constituting a per se constitutional rights violation, was inappropriate to be addressed in a post-conviction proceeding. State v. Prince, supra ; T.C.A. Section 40-30-105. Regarding the approval of a harmless error test for constitutional error, in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), the United States Supreme Court held that errors of constitutional dimension do not necessarily require reversal of a criminal conviction on the principal that an otherwise valid conviction should not be set aside if the reviewing court determines that the constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt in light of the entire record. In subsequent cases, the United States Supreme Court has applied a harmless error or prejudice standard to numerous violations of constitutional rights. See Deleware v. VanArsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 681, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 1436, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986) (failure to permit cross-examination of a witness regarding bias); Rushen v. Spain, 464 U.S. 114, 118, 104 S.Ct. 453, 455, 78 L.Ed.2d 267 (1983) (denial of the right to be present at trial); Rose v. Clark, 478 U.S. 570, 106 S.Ct. 3101, 92 L.Ed.2d 460 (1986) (unconstitutional burden-shifting jury instructions on element of malice). Some constitutional violations require that the defendant establish that he was actually prejudiced by the error in order to obtain relief. For example, a defendant who attacks his guilty plea on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel must show that he was actually prejudiced by his attorney's performance; that but for the counsel's ineffectiveness the guilty plea would not have been agreed to. Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 59, 106 S.Ct. 366, 370, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985). This court dealt with errors arising out of the non-constitutionally grounded omission by the trial court to give all of the Mackey instructions in State v. Newsome, supra . In that case we expressly approved the application to such errors of the harmless error rules set out in T.R.A.P. 36(b) and Rule 52(a) Tenn.R.Crim.P. In addressing violations of the required litany not rising to the level of constitutional rights deprivations the test is not as strict as the Chapman requirement of finding the error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Rule 52(a) Tenn.R.Crim.P. defines harmless error as follows: (a) Harmless Error. No judgment of conviction shall be reversed on appeal except for errors which affirmatively appear to have affected the result of the trial on the merits. Rule 36(b) T.R.A.P. provides: (b) Effect of Error. A final judgment from which relief is available or otherwise appropriate shall not be set aside unless, considering the whole record, error involving a substantial right more probably than not affected the judgment or would result in prejudice to the judicial process. These rules have the effect of requiring the complaining party to establish that the error caused prejudice which affirmatively appears; and is apparent from considering the whole record that the error more probably than not affected the judgment. In other words, in a criminal case non-constitutional error must be shown by the defendant to have probably affected the judgment before reversal is appropriate. It is clear from this review and compilation of the required guilty plea procedure that cases will arise, just like the one sub judice, wherein omissions of both kinds will be present. Whether the omissions are of one category or the other, or both, they must be addressed individually according to their constitutional or non-constitutional origin. Omissions from the required dialogue are error. There is not an omission where there has been substantial compliance, as we have defined substantial compliance. An omission that is constitutionally mandated is subject to appellate review on direct appeal; and, if not waived by failure to raise it sooner, or barred by the three year statute of limitations set out in T.C.A. Section 40-30-102, may become the basis of a petition for post-conviction relief. Omissions of a part or parts of the advices and questions that are required only because this court, by rule or appellate decision exercising the court's supervisory duty and authority, has required it to be said to or asked of the guilty-pleading defendant, may be reviewed only upon direct appeal. If the error is raised on direct appeal, and the record does not affirmatively show at a minimum substantial compliance with the dialogue requirements, the burden is upon the State to demonstrate that the error is harmless, under the appropriate harmless error rule as heretofore set out. If the State does not carry this burden, then the judgment must be set aside. Obviously, there are many scenarios in which the error would be harmless. If it can be shown that the defendant already knew what he was not advised, as is true in the case at bar, the harmless nature of the error is classic. If the defendant was previously tried on the same charge, and experienced the exercise of his or her rights, and after a mistrial and before a second trial entered a plea of guilty and was not advised of rights in the case which rights he or she had already experienced, the error would obviously be harmless under any standard. If a sworn petition to be allowed to plead guilty is filed by the defendant, setting out the fact of the defendant's knowledge of all of the facts required to be covered by the judge in the required dialogue, and there is evidence that he in fact was aware of the truth of the allegations of the petition from the testimony of an attorney or attorneys or other learned person who advised with him in complete detail regarding the contents of the petition, and the defendant testified on the record that he understood the contents of the petition that he had filed, when and if this is found by the court to be true then the error in not articulating the full required rights information and conviction consequences could be found to be harmless. In a case where the erroneous omission is the basis for relief under a post-conviction petition, the defendant-petitioner must allege and prove the omission, and that but for the omission the guilty plea would not have been entered. If this thesis is established prima facie, then the burden shifts to the State to justify the error by establishing through extrinsic evidence the defendant's knowing and voluntary relinquishment of the involved constitutional protections, despite the erroneous omission. If the State can demonstrate that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, then the judgment stands. If a reasonable doubt exists at the close of the proof, then the judgment must be set aside. See Dunn v. Simmons, 877 F.2nd 1275, 1279 (6th Cir.1989), cert. denied ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 1539, 108 L.Ed.2d 778 (1990).