Opinion ID: 2328832
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellant's Motions to Withdraw the Guilty Plea

Text: The gravamen of appellant's initial motion, filed on August 1, 1990, is that during the plea proceeding she did not acknowledge sufficient facts to support a factual basis for her voluntary manslaughter plea. Appellant contends that malice, although mitigated, is a necessary element of voluntary manslaughter and that she did not admit to any facts constituting malice. The trial judge, relying on pertinent case law, [6] denied this motion concluding that malice is not an element of voluntary manslaughter in this jurisdiction, and that even if it were, appellant's acknowledged conduct of shaking an infant and knowing its head hit the wall constituted malice despite her assertions of her lack of intent to injure Jamie. Shortly after the trial judge denied appellant's motion, this court decided Comber v. United States, supra note 2, 584 A.2d at 44 n. 22, which attempted to resolve ambiguities in the Bradford decision regarding the elements of voluntary manslaughter. As a consequence of Comber, supra, the trial judge invited appellant to file a motion to reconsider the court's prior ruling denying appellant's motion to withdraw her guilty plea so that the court might assess what impact, if any, the Comber decision may have on that ruling. Appellant filed her motion and alleged that she failed to acknowledge sufficient facts during the plea proceeding to provide a factual basis for pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter which would support that she acted with malice. Appellant also claimed that her plea was involuntary because she did not receive real notice of the true nature of the charges against her. In an extensive and well reasoned order, the trial court denied appellant's motion to reconsider the denial of her motion to withdraw the guilty plea. The trial court concluded that the Bradford decision and other pre- Comber precedents, at the time of appellant's plea of guilty, warranted that voluntary manslaughter required a general intent to do the acts which caused the decedent's death and did not require malice, so that even if the appellant's plea were involuntary under Comber, supra, the Comber decision should not be applied retroactively to invalidate her plea on collateral attack. The trial court did conclude, however, in its pre- Comber order that the plea proceeding, taken in its entirety, reflected sufficient conduct on the part of appellant to constitute malice. The trial court also concluded that under Comber, supra, appellant's knowing conduct showed the requisite mental state necessary to a finding of voluntary manslaughter. We agree, and therefore affirm the orders of the trial court.