Court Opinion

ID: 9529791
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:54:17.462671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:55.133914
License: Public Domain

Dolliver, J.
(dissenting) — While I concur in the disposition of the personal restraint petition of Evans, I disagree with the result reached by the majority in Hews and dissent. The majority asserts "Hews has submitted a prima facie case demonstrating that his plea was constitutionally invalid." Majority, at 88. Given the circumstances at the time of Hews' guilty plea, I believe the record is overwhelming there was no prejudice.
The courtroom colloquies of Hews, the judge, and Hews' counsel are included in the majority and need not be repeated. To this I would add the statement of C. Richard Johnson, M.D., a psychiatrist who examined Hews on several occasions and testified as to Hews' competency to enter *94a plea. In response to further questioning from the court, Dr. Johnson stated:
Iain at this point and through the time that I have seen him has evidenced a trust in his attorney and a willingness to cooperate with his attorney in the preparation of his defense. Iain does know what he is charged with and the circumstances of what was involved and does realize the jeopardy that he is in as a result of these charges, and it is these basic considerations that lead me to feel that he is competent.
Hews was before the court on a plea bargain. The colloquy recorded in the majority opinion and the statement of Dr. Johnson demonstrate that Hews intelligently, understandingly, unequivocally, and voluntarily entered a plea of guilty, pursuant to a plea bargain, to a charge of murder in the second degree. Although defendant did represent to the court he "didn't intend to kill anybody", his statements on the record show there was a criminal liability for murder in the first degree committed by means of a felony murder during the course of a robbery. When what is disclosed by the record is considered with the other circumstances of the case — that this was a plea bargain to second degree murder; and that Hews had the expert counsel of a highly skilled and competent attorney, as well as the observation and questioning of an experienced trial judge — I believe his claim, now nearly 13 years after the original hearing, that the plea of guilty is somehow tainted with unconstitutionality is without substance.
Hews made his bargain. He ought to be held to it even though he understandably may be weary of life at the Washington State Reformatory. State v. Majors, 94 Wn.2d 354, 616 P.2d 1237 (1980).
Under In re Hagler, 97 Wn.2d 818, 827, 650 P.2d 1103 (1982), some prejudice which rises to "an error of constitutional dimensions which was not raised on appeal" must be *95shown. I find no such prejudice here and thus I dissent.
Brachtenbach and Dimmick, JJ., concur with Dolliver, J.