Court Opinion

ID: 9883396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:41:43.352279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:23.038657
License: Public Domain

CRIPPEN, Judge
(concurring specially).
I believe the panel has correctly analyzed the scope of Minnesota Statutes section 609.43, subdivision 2 and therefore concur in the majority opinion. At this stage of the proceedings, however, I would decide that the trial court erred in denying the defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea of guilty.
The defendant and the prosecutor reached a plea agreement. It is apparent that defendant expected under this agreement a recommendation from the prosecutor against further incarceration.
The prosecutor’s plea agreement did not call for a formal hypocrisy, the statement of a recommendation and the informal revealing of a different opinion. Once the prosecutor stated to the trial judge an official disavowal of the plea agreement, the agreement was irrevocably withdrawn and wholly void.
The trial court attempted to attribute some significance to the original plea agreement after it was voided by the declarations of the prosecutor. This was an error. The trial court’s statements about the agreement could do nothing but mislead the defendant, suggesting to him that the prosecutor’s commitment to recommend against incarceration was of some continued significance. The agreement had no continued significance, and the trial court should have said to the defendant that this was the case.
When a plea agreement is set aside by the court, “it shall so advise the parties in open court and then call upon the defendant to either affirm or withdraw his plea.” Minn.R.Crim.P. 15.04, subd. 3(1). Here the agreement was set aside by the prosecutor, and the trial court should have used the same approach called for by this rule, not *69an approach that could mislead the defendant.
Under these circumstances, the conviction was manifestly unjust. The defendant is entitled to withdraw his plea and to enjoy a trial on any accusations against him. Minn.R.Crim.P. 15.05, subd. 1.