Court Opinion

ID: 9712607
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:57:08.120948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:13.256238
License: Public Domain

*119
Murphy, C. J.,

concurring in the judgment:

I agree with the Court that the record in this case affirmatively discloses that the appellant intelligently and voluntarily entered his guilty pleas and I, therefore, concur in the judgments affirming the convictions. I do not, however, agree with the Court’s holding that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not require that the substance of the three constitutional rights specified in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U. S. 238, 89 S. Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), be shown on the record to have been enumerated to the accused, and his intelligent and knowing waiver thereof obtained, prior to acceptance of his guilty plea.
Shortly after Boykin was decided, the Court of Special Appeals interpreted that decision as making clear “that if the record does not affirmatively show that a defendant had an intelligent understanding that he possessed each of these specified rights and voluntarily waived them, the acceptance of a plea of guilty would not be effective in any event.” McCall v. State, 9 Md. App. 191, 199, 263 A. 2d 19 (1970), cert. denied, 258 Md. 729 (1970). Accord, Williams v. State, 10 Md. App. 570 at 572, 271 A. 2d 777 (1970), cert. denied, 261 Md. 730 (1971); see Silverberg v. Warden, 7 Md. App. 657 at 658-59, 256 A. 2d 821 (1969). The trial courts of the State, adhering to these decisions, have long required a specific, on-the-record reference to, and waiver of, the three constitutional rights outlined in Boykin. I think it is a dangerous and unnecessary departure from the established practice to now hold, absent a clear mandate from the Supreme Court, that Boykin does not mean what it so plainly says; and that the substance of the so-called Boykin constitutional rights need not be given preliminary to acceptance of a guilty plea and an on-the-record waiver obtained. Indeed, five years after Boykin was decided, the author of that decision, Justice Douglas, stated in a dissent from the denial of a certiorari petition (joined by Justices Brennan and Marshall) that “Boykin established that the State must demonstrate the defendant’s knowing waiver of the three constitutional rights there enumerated.” Johnson v. Ohio, 419 U. S. 924, 95 S. Ct. 200, 42 L.Ed.2d 158 (1974).
*120Because Judge Naughton specifically and sufficiently apprised the appellant on the record that his guilty pleas would constitute a waiver of each of his Boykin enumerated constitutional rights, there can be no doubt that the pleas were voluntary and intelligently entered.
Judge Eldridge authorizes me to state that he concurs in the views expressed herein.