Court Opinion

ID: 9720990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:46:05.442046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:22.649607
License: Public Domain

McGIVERIN, Justice
(dissenting).
Being unable to agree with the result reached by the majority, I respectfully dissent.
On January 16, 1978, at the taking of the guilty plea, and after the court was advised of the plea bargain and the State’s conditional recommendation as to sentence, the following record appears:
THE COURT: . . . [D]o you know and do you understand that the Court may impose upon you the maximum sentence? — in other words, the Court does not have to follow the recom*23mendations of the County Attorney or any bargaining made between you and your attorney and the County Attorney? A. [Weig] Yes.
THE COURT: And have there been any promises or threats made to you that caused you to plead guilty? A. [Weig] No.
THE COURT: Do you still wish to plead guilty? A. [Weig] Yes.
Because Weig knew the court did not have to follow the plea bargain or the State’s recommendation as to sentence, and yet he persisted in pleading guilty, it should not matter whether the State later changed its recommendation. Weig was not misled when he knew the court was not bound to follow any recommendations made to it and that the court would exercise its discretion under the law as to the sentence to be imposed.
The Kossuth county attorney was not made aware of the alleged breaking and entering offense of December 30, 1977, by defendant in Winnebago County when the plea bargain was made on January 16,1978. That charge and the additional charges against defendant in February 1978, which were revealed in the presentence report, provided adequate reason based on defendant’s alleged conduct for the prosecutor not to proceed with his initial conditional recommendation.
At a sentencing hearing after the other charges had been revealed and the State’s recommendation changed, the court stated:
THE COURT: The Court when accepting the plea accepted it on the basis that the defendant was aware that the Court was not bound by any bargain or agreement.
We stated in State v. Parrish, 232 N.W.2d 511, 515 (Iowa 1975):
Our holdings ... do not render all guilty pleas tentative and subject to withdrawal as a matter of defendant’s right where there has been a plea bargain. The court is not bound to allow withdrawal of the plea where each of the following conditions is met: (1) the court renounces participation in the bargain, (2) denies any inclination to be bound thereby, (3) such renunciation and denial are made known to the defendant, and (4) the defendant thereafter enters or (as in this case) affirms his plea of guilty. All four conditions are established in the record before us.
This language applies to the record here. The trial court has considerable discretion in deciding whether to permit or reject a request to withdraw a guilty plea. State v. Reed, 252 N.W.2d 455, 457 (Iowa 1977).
Accordingly, I do not believe the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to allow defendant to withdraw his guilty plea.
I would affirm as to that issue.