Court Opinion

ID: 9606783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:52:34.918783+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:35.425873
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Justice
(concurring in the result):
I agree that this case should be remanded for further proceedings to determine whether, on the basis of the entire record before the trial court, the defendant in fact knew and understood the elements of the charged offense and admitted to having committed acts that constitute the elements of the charged offense. See State v. Maguire, 830 P.2d 216 (Utah 1992); State v. Hoff, 814 P.2d 1119 (Utah 1991); State v. Gibbons, 740 P.2d 1309 (Utah 1987). That requirement is absolutely essential to a valid guilty plea.
Gibbons was intended to do away with the practice of accepting a guilty plea based on the submission of a plea affidavit to a trial judge who asked the defendant only whether he was familiar with the contents of the affidavit, which was usually written by an attorney. That practice is neither lawful under Rule 11 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure nor constitutional under Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 243, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1712, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969); see also Hoff, 814 P.2d at 1123.
Trial courts may use a plea affidavit to facilitate the taking of a plea, but a trial judge cannot discharge his legal duty merely by accepting such an affidavit with the defendant’s acknowledgement that he executed it and that the affidavit is true. In Maguire, we again described the duties of the trial judge by quoting language from the court of appeals’ opinion in State v. Smith:
It is critical, however, that strict Rule 11 compliance be demonstrated on the record at the time the ... plea is entered. Therefore, if an affidavit is used to aid Rule 11 compliance, it must be addressed during the plea hearing. The trial court must conduct an inquiry to establish that the defendant understands the affidavit and voluntarily signed it_ Any omissions or ambiguities in the affidavit must be clarified during the plea hearing, as must any uncertainties raised in the course of the plea colloquy. Then the affidavit itself, signed by the required parties, can be incorporated into the record. The efficiency-promoting function of the affidavit is thereby served, in that the court need not repeat, verbatim, Rule 11 inquiries that are clearly posed and answered in the affidavit, unless Rule 11 by its terms specifically requires such repetition.
Maguire, 830 P.2d at 217-18 (quoting State v. Smith, 812 P.2d 470, 477 (Utah Ct.App.1991)).
The trial court must be a direct participant in assuring compliance with the requirements of Rule 11 and the Constitution. See Gibbons, 740 P.2d at 1312-13; Hoff, 814 P.2d at 1123; see also Boykin, 395 U.S. at 243-44, 89 S.Ct. at 1712.1 One essential point established in Gibbons was that the law “squarely places on trial *997courts the burden of ensuring that constitutional and Rule 11(e). requirements are complied with when a guilty plea is entered.” Gibbons, 740 P.2d at 1312.

. In Boykin, the Court stated:
What is at stake for an accused facing death or imprisonment 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. When the judge discharges that function, he leaves a record adequate for any review that may be later sought and forestalls the spin-off of collateral proceedings that seek to probe murky memories.
395 U.S. at 243-44, 89 S.Ct. at 1712 (citations omitted).