Court Opinion

ID: 9780819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 02:57:51.417763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:14.469795
License: Public Domain

MELTON, Justice,
dissenting.
Because the undisputed record in this case does not support a finding that Michael Anthony Brown’s guilty plea was knowing and voluntary, I must respectfully dissent.
In habeas corpus proceedings such as this, a completed waiver form, standing alone, does not present sufficient evidence that a guilty plea was knowing and voluntary. Sentinel Offender Svcs. v. Harrelson, 286 Ga. 665, 667 (1), n. 2 (690 SE2d 831) (2010) (“To the extent Obi v. State, 230 Ga. App. 476 (1) (496 SE2d 556) (1998) can be read to indicate that a completed form alone is necessarily sufficient to establish the voluntariness of a plea, it is hereby overruled.”). To the contrary, “the record must contain some affirmative evidence that either the trial court or trial counsel entered *54into a colloquy with defendant and explained all three of his Boykin rights. [Cit.]” (Emphasis supplied.) State v. Hemdani, 282 Ga. 511, 512 (651 SE2d 734) (2007). See also King v. State, 270 Ga. 367 (509 SE2d 32) (1998). Here, the following is undisputed: (1) the trial court did not have a colloquy with Brown regarding two of his three Boykin rights; (2) Brown’s trial counsel merely stated that he conferred with Brown regarding “his legal and Constitutional rights,” without specifically making reference to Brown’s Boykin rights; and (3) the only evidence that Brown may have received his Boykin rights is a waiver of rights form which did not specifically set forth the Boykin rights in their entirety.
Decided November 7, 2011.
Michael A. Brown, pro se.
Ashley Wright, District Attorney, Madonna M. Little, Assistant District Attorney, Samuel S. Olens, Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Boykin recognizes that the waiver of constitutional rights that occurs when a plea of guilty is entered is so great that the proceeding “demands the utmost solicitude of which courts are capable in canvassing the matter with the accused to make sure he has a full understanding of what the plea connotes and of its consequence,” [cit.] and that the record must show that the plea was made voluntarily. [Cits.]
Hawes v. State, 281 Ga. 822, 824 (642 SE2d 92) (2007).
The undisputed record in this case does not show the utmost solicitude and care clearly required by our law, as there has been no showing that Brown received a colloquy with the trial court or his counsel regarding all three Boykin rights. In the absence of such a colloquy, Brown’s guilty plea cannot be found to be knowing and voluntary, and his writ of habeas corpus should have been granted. Hemdani, supra.
I am authorized to state that Justice Thompson joins in this dissent.