Court Opinion

ID: 9681063
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:43:29.280992+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:01.477641
License: Public Domain

*940WOODLEY, Judge
(dissenting).
Charged by indictment with cattle theft, appellant waived a jury and pleaded guilty before the court.
Art. 10a V.A.C.C.P. requires the court to appoint counsel before a defendant who has no attorney can agree to waive a jury.
I am unable to agree that the absence of a waiver in writing of the ten days allowed counsel appointed “to prepare for trial” vitiates the conviction where the defendant desires to plead guilty and requests and obtains consent of the attorney for the state, waives a jury and pleads guilty before the court. This is not such a trial as is contemplated in Art. 494 V.A. C.C.P. for which counsel shall have ten days to prepare for trial.
I respectfully dissent.