Court Opinion

ID: 9426776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:54.00961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.062743
License: Public Domain

Mb. Justice Powell,
concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court, and write briefly only to emphasize the importance of finality to a system of justice.* Our traditional concern for “persons whom society has *84grievously wronged and for whom belated liberation is little enough compensation,” Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 441 (1963), has resulted in a uniquely elaborate system of appeals and collateral review, even in cases in which the issue presented has little or nothing to do with innocence of the accused. The substantial societal interest in both innocence and finality of judgments is subordinated in many instances to formalisms.
The case before us today is not necessarily an example of abuse of the system. It is an example, however, of how finality can be frustrated by failure to adhere to proper procedures at the trial court level. I do not prejudge the ultimate result in this case by saying that respondent’s guilty plea may well have been made knowingly and voluntarily. The case is here, five years after respondent’s conviction, and following review by the North Carolina courts, the United States District Court, and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, primarily because the record before us leaves room for some doubt as to the reliability of the procedure followed with respect to the guilty plea. All that we have in the record, as a basis for testing the possible merit of respondent’s petition, are answers to a printed form certified by the trial judge. We do not know whether anything was said by the judge, the prosecutor, or counsel for respondent, other than the questions read from the form and the monosyllabic answers by respondent. There was no transcript of the proceedings.
As the Court’s opinion indicates, there is every reason to believe that if a procedure similar to that prescribed by the new North Carolina statute is followed, a contention such as that made by respondent will justify an evidentiary hearing “only in the most extraordinary circumstances.” Ante, at 80 n. 19. If all participants in the process at the plea stage are mindful of the importance of adhering carefully to prescribed procedures and of preserving a full record thereof, the causes of justice and finality both will be served.

The importance of finality to the criminal defendant and to society was well put by Mr. Justice Harlan:
“Both the individual criminal defendant and society have an interest in insuring that there will at some point be the certainty that comes with an end to litigation, and that attention will ultimately be focused not on whether ái conviction was free from error but rather on whether the prisoner can be restored to a useful place in the community.” Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1, 24-25 (1963) (dissenting opinion).
See also Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U. S. 218, 256-266 (1973) (Powell, J., concurring).