Court Opinion

ID: 9756990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:12:59.885634+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:34.022594
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(concurring).
In dealing with the increasingly frequent attempts by defendants to set aside pleas of guilty which they have tendered and the trial courts have accepted, this Court has adopted the approach of the American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Pleas of Guilty, § 2.1 (Approved Draft, 1968) [hereinafter cited as “ABA Standards”]. See Commonwealth v. Starr, 450 Pa. 485, 490, 301 A.2d 592 (1973); Commonwealth v. Forbes, 450 Pa. 185, 199, 299 A.2d 268 (1973). I therefore prefer to address the question before us in those terms.
The ABA Standards teach that pre-sentencing requests to withdraw guilty pleas should be allowed for “any fair and just reason unless the prosecution has been substantially prejudiced by reliance upon the defendant’s plea.” ABA Standards § 2.1(b); Commonwealth v. Morales, 452 Pa. 53, 54, 305 A.2d 11 (1973); Commonwealth v. Forbes, 450 Pa. 185, 199, 299 A.2d 268 (1973). Challenges to pleas which are made after sentencing, on the other hand, are to be sustained only where necessary to correct “manifest injustice.” ABA Standards § 2.1(a); Commonwealth v. Starr, 450 Pa. 485, 490, 301 A.2d 592 (1973). Under this rubric fall pleas which are found to have been involuntary, or to have been “entered or ratified by the defendant without knowledge of the charge or that the sentence actually imposed could be imposed.” *341ABA Standards § 2.1(a) (ii) (2). Also embraced under the “manifest injustice” heading are, I think, pleas where the supporting colloquy is inadequate under the requirements prevailing at the time the plea is accepted.
The Court today holds, and I agree, that the colloquy between appellant and the trial court, complete as it was, did not comply with the standards set forth in Commonwealth v. Ingram, 455 Pa. 198, 316 A.2d 77 (1974),* because the elements of the crime of robbery were not explained. This defect would have vitiated a plea entered even after imposition of sentence. A fortiori, it permits withdrawal of a plea, such as this one, with regard to which a petition to withdraw was filed prior to sentencing. Accordingly, I join in the decision of the Court.

 Appellant’s plea of guilty to murder was entered on September 13, 1974, almost nine months after January 24, 1974, the date of the decision in Ingram.