Court Opinion

ID: 9621820
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:07:45.661072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:10.015560
License: Public Domain

Justice PLEICONES.
I agree that we should affirm the denial of petitioner’s application for post-conviction relief (PCR) but write separately because I would decide the case solely on the basis that the statute of limitations bars consideration of petitioner’s claim. I therefore concur in the result reached by the majority.
In June 2000, petitioner pled guilty to four drug offenses. Pursuant to a plea bargain, two of these four offenses were designated “first offenses” and two “second offenses.” It is well-settled that an individual may, as part of a plea bargain, plead guilty to a crime of which he is not guilty. Rollison v. State, 346 S.C. 506, 552 S.E.2d 290 (2001). So long as the defendant understands the nature and elements of the charges, the consequences of his plea and the constitutional rights he is waiving by virtue of the plea, he is free to bargain for ‘enhanced’ convictions, that is, to have some convictions classified as second drug offenses. Id. In the same vein, he can bargain for multiple first offenses. Id.
*580Here, petitioner did not timely file a PCR challenge to this 2000 plea, and cannot now be heard to challenge the knowing and voluntary nature of that plea, nor the quality of assistance rendered by plea counsel as the statute of limitations applies to that conviction. Peloquin v. State, 321 S.C. 468, 469 S.E.2d 606 (1996) (one year to file application). I would decide the case on this ground, and dismiss the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. I do not join any of the majority’s discussion of the validity of that 2000 plea, the analysis of that plea’s impact on petitioner’s subsequent sentence, and specifically distance myself from the discussion of S.C.Code Ann. §§ 17-25-45 and -50, which I find irrelevant to the question whether petitioner was properly sentenced as a third offender following his trial and conviction.