Court Opinion

ID: 9575726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:16:21.321164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:52.925953
License: Public Domain

Birdsong, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Because I believe that the issue raised by appellant is not appeal-able and because it appears timely to define with greater precision the scope of Mims v. State, 201 Ga. App. 277 (410 SE2d 824), I dissent in part. However, I concur fully with the majority’s holding that the search and seizure was lawful and not in violation of appellant’s Fourth Amendment rights.
I also write because of my concern that the majority has so weakened the precedential value of Mims, by finding a tacit approval of a conditional plea to be tantamount to express approval, as to place primarily in the hands of attorneys the power to decide conclusively for this court the extent to which a plea of guilty or nolo contendere will serve to waive existing defenses. This matter, hopefully, will be addressed by the Supreme Court so that a definitive answer can be obtained regarding the effect, under existing Georgia law, of a purported conditional plea of guilty.
Appellant filed a motion to suppress certain evidence asserting it was obtained as the result of an illegal search conducted without probable cause. The trial court denied the motion. Subsequently, appellant pled guilty to the offense charged on condition that he be allowed to preserve a right to appeal the denial of the suppression motion. The State expressly agreed to the conditional plea on the record. However, the trial court, in my view, only tacitly approved the conditional guilty plea, and expressed a degree of uncertainty to appellant whether the right to appeal a suppression issue could be preserved, as *154revealed in the following colloquy: “[ASST. DA]: Okay. ... Is that your understanding of our plea agreement? [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: That’s correct, Your Honor, and it’s understood that he has a right to preserve his right to appeal. [THE COURT]: Well, to whatever extent this will preserve it. I don’t know that — [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: There’s a case, Your Honor. . . . [THE COURT]: If you’re satisfied, I’m satisfied.” (Emphasis supplied.) Thereafter, the plea providency inquiry continued without further reference or express acceptance by the court to the proposed condition, and notwithstanding the trial court’s earlier indication of uncertainty, appellant persisted in his plea and did not seek a clarification from the trial court as to whether his plea was being accepted conditionally or unconditionally. After the guilty plea providency inquiry was concluded and the trial court placed appellant on four years probation, under the First Offender Act, with certain terms and conditions of probation as stated in the record, neither the trial court nor defense counsel advised appellant on the record of any right of appeal or of the time limits pertaining thereto.
As a general rule, a plea of guilty unless properly accepted conditionally will waive any defenses or objections whether known or unknown, except an appellate issue of whether such plea was voluntarily made and accepted following proper inquiry by the trial court. Mims v. State, supra at 279 (1). There exists, however, the following strictly limited exception to this general rule. An appellant “may go behind the plea to show some supervening illegality of overwhelming proportions.” Addison v. State, 239 Ga. 622, 624 (238 SE2d 411). This exception concerns those cases where the error goes “ ‘to the very power of the state to bring the defendant into court to answer the charge brought against him.’ ” Id. As recognized in Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U. S. 21, 30 (94 SC 2098, 40 LE2d 628), an unconditional guilty plea does not preclude appeal of a claim of error grounded upon the “right not to be haled into court at all,” that is, jurisdictional and generally double jeopardy-type errors. Moreover, Blackledge, supra, re-affirms that other claims of error, including claims of “ ‘antecedent constitutional violations’ or of a ‘deprivation of constitutional rights that occurred prior to the entry of the guilty plea’ ” will not be appealable following acceptance of the unconditional guilty plea. Thus, it appears that while a claim of constitutional double jeopardy or lack of jurisdiction (and perhaps a claim of violation of Georgia’s procedural double jeopardy provisions) generally would survive an unconditional plea of guilty, Addison, supra, other non-jurisdictional defects in pretrial proceedings, whether or not of constitutional magnitude, could not be asserted on appeal. Blackledge, supra; Harris v. Hopper, 236 Ga. 389, 391 (224 SE2d 1); compare Fuller v. State, 182 Ga. App. 614 (356 SE2d 554). Accordingly, unless appellant’s conditional plea of *155guilty was properly accepted, his enumeration of error regarding the trial court’s failure to grant his suppression motion cannot be considered on appeal.
Decided November 3, 1992.
Stephen R. Yekel, for appellant.
Spencer Lawton, Jr., District Attorney, Jon Hope, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
In Mims, supra, we unequivocally held that “defendants have no right to condition guilty pleas upon reserving the appeal of any issues, and defendants may only reserve the appeal of such issues when the trial court, in the exercise of its discretion, allows a defendant to do so as part of a negotiated plea. Therefore, unless the trial court expressly approves the reservation of the issue and accepts the guilty plea with that condition, the issue is not preserved; and an unconditional guilty plea will waive any defenses and objections.” (Emphasis supplied.) Even when the State expressly agrees with the proposed conditional guilty plea of defendant, as also required by Mims, supra at 278 (1), all defenses and objections, as above discussed (including those concerning the legality of searches and seizures) are waived and will not be considered on appeal unless the record reveals affirmatively that the remaining requirements of Mims, supra, also have been met, i.e., that the trial court expressly approves the proposed condition and unequivocally accepts the guilty plea with that condition. Thus, a proposed conditional guilty plea which has been accepted only tacitly by the trial court, such as occurred in this case, will not comply with the strict and bright line requirements of Mims.
Finally, I question whether an appellant who enters a so-called conditional guilty plea has taken the first genuine step toward rehabilitation. Rather than acknowledging criminal culpability and standing ready to accept lawful and adequate punishment, such an offender seeks to cloak himself in any protective sentencing mantel which a guilty plea affords without relinquishing any entitlement to the legal weapons at his disposal in his unabated quest to overturn the very conviction to which he has entered his plea of purported contrition.
As appellant’s sole enumeration of error is, “did the trial court commit error by denying appellant’s motion to suppress,” which is a nonappealable issue for reasons above discussed, this appeal should have been dismissed. Mims, supra.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge McMurray and Judge Andrews join in this dissent.