Court Opinion

ID: 9652372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:23:00.340925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:50.826920
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I join in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Roberts. The majority opinion is wholly unresponsive to the issue raised in this appeal. Appellant contends that § 1311 of the Criminal Code, which at the time of the trial provided for the death penalty in jury trials but did not provide for the death penalty in non-jury trials and cases of guilty pleas, impermissibly infringed on the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. He contends, in effect, that the then-existing statutory scheme deterred him from going the jury route because if he did so, he would be running the gauntlet and could have received the death penalty, whereas no such possibility existed had he waived a jury trial.
Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970), and North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 91 S.Ct. 160, 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970), obviously do not control this case. Those cases held that a guilty plea motivated by a desire to avoid the death penalty was not compelled within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. Those cases did not deal with a Sixth Amendment claim that appellant was entitled to freely choose whether to be tried by a jury.