Court Opinion

ID: 9743480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:34:36.793798+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:41.345624
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
Indiana Code § 35-4.1 — 1—4 requires the trial judge before whom the accused stands to make a plea of guilty to “address the defendant and determine whether any promises, force or threats were used to obtain the plea.” This statutory mandate requires the judge to ask the accused questions which will cause him to respond by revealing whether he has received any such promises or threats. Nothing less can satisfy the requirement of the statute.
*1191That part of the guilty plea record which reveals a colloquy which even approaches this matter of promises and threats is the following:
“BY THE COURT: Do you recall having signed that Plea Agreement?
A. Yes, sir.
BY THE COURT: And was that signed voluntarily?
A. Yes, it was.
BY THE COURT: After your attorney had taken some time to go over the matter with you?
A. Yes, sir.”
Based upon this record, it is evident that the requirement of the statute to inquire into the matter of promises and threats was not complied with and that there is no legally valid determination that this plea was made voluntarily.
A plea of guilty is an admission or confession of guilt made in court before a judge. It is also a waiver of specific constitutional rights. As an admission or confession of guilt, it cannot be accepted by the judge consistent with the privilege against self-incrimination in the absence of a contemporaneous determination that the decision to admit guilt was free and voluntary, and not induced by any violence, threats, promises, or other improper influences. Brady v. United States, (1970) 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747. Federal constitutional law requires the record of a state plea proceeding to affirmatively disclose that the plea was entered voluntarily. Boykin v. Alabama, (1969) 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274. When the petitioner presents a plea proceeding record deficient in this respect, he has sustained his burden of showing involuntariness requiring that he be granted the right to withdraw his plea of guilty. Brimhall v. State, (1972) 258 Ind. 153, 279 N.E.2d 557; Campbell v. State, (1975) 262 Ind. 594, 321 N.E.2d 560. This record is deficient in this regard. For the reasons that this plea is tainted by the failure of the plea judge to comply with our statute and by the inadequacy of the record, I would reverse and permit petitioner to withdraw his plea of guilty.
I also dissent, because I do not regard as sound the construction given Ind.Code § 35-4.1-l-4(a). The majority concludes that this statute concerns itself only with promises and threats by police or prosecutors. I see nothing in the statute to support this restrictive interpretation. For example, if threats be made against the accused or his fámily by relatives and friends of the putative victim, witnesses, or others having an interest in the outcome of the case, those threats are material to a rational determination of whether plea is being made voluntarily. Indeed, prior to the enactment of this modern statute, this Court held that a plea induced by fear of violence from angry and excited mobs was involuntary in the legal sense. Sanders v. State, (1882) 85 Ind. 318. This issue, has been debated by English and American judges for more than three centuries. Bram v. United States, (1897) 168 U.S. 532, 18 S.Ct. 183, 42 L.Ed. 568. I regard the Sanders case as placing this State on that side of the question which renders promises engendering hope for benefit and threats creating fear and terror as being material in making a judicial determination of the voluntariness of a plea of guilty to a criminal charge. A plea induced by improper promises or threats by private citizens lacks the essential quality of trustworthiness and should not be received in an Indiana court of law.
HUNTER, J., concurs.