Court Opinion

ID: 9518264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:48:33.264341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:02.032049
License: Public Domain

T. G. Kavanagh, J.
In this cause, on order of the Michigan Supreme Court, counsel was appointed for the defendant for the purpose of assistance in appropriate post-conviction proceedings. Such counsel made two motions, one for the disqualification of the judge who accepted defendant’s plea and one for the withdrawal of the plea.
The judge who accepted the plea stated that he withdrew voluntarily and the first motion for disqualification was accordingly granted. The second motion for withdrawal of the plea was denied without an evidentiary hearing on the matters asserted as grounds for withdrawal of the plea.
In our view the matters asserted as grounds for the withdrawal of the plea, vis.: that the plea was induced by threats and promises made by police officers, could only be established by an evidentiary hearing, and if established would require the grant of the motion to withdraw the plea.
To deny the motion without such hearing was an abuse of discretion.
Reversed and remanded for a hearing on the voluntariness of the plea.
Levin, J., concurred with T. G. Kavanagh, J.