Court Opinion

ID: 9721518
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:01:27.057116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:26.847562
License: Public Domain

Wilkie, J.
(dissenting). I disagree with the majority on their position relative to the central issue in this case: Should the defendant have been permitted to withdraw his plea of guilty to prevent a manifest injustice? In essence, because the court did not ascertain defendant’s understanding of the plea bargain he had made, the defendant should have been allowed to withdraw his plea of guilty.
In our concurring opinion in Farrar v. State,1 Mr. Chief Justice Hallows and the writer of this opinion expressed the view that before a bargained plea is accepted in the trial court, the court should ascertain the defendant’s understanding of the bargain, and if the bargain as understood by the defendant is not kept, the defendant should have the opportunity to withdraw his plea of guilty. Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court in Santobello v. New York 2 declared that the prosecutor’s failure to keep a plea bargain may form the basis for the withdrawal of a guilty plea.
*240In the instant case the defendant was charged with armed robbery contrary to sec. 943.32 (2), Stats. This, despite the fact that he was never alleged to have been armed at the time and, in fact, was never armed with a weapon. The “plea bargain” in this case was a reduction of the charge from armed robbery to unarmed robbery. Clearly this defendant was not “armed with a dangerous weapon” (sec. 943.32 (2)) and, therefore, could not possibly be convicted of armed robbery. Thus the plea bargain entered into by the defendant and the prosecution was completely illusory.
Under these circumstances I believe that the trial court was obliged to inform the defendant that his conduct did not constitute armed robbery. If, after understanding the law as it related to the crime,3 the defendant still wished to plead guilty, then the plea would be valid.
I would reverse the judgment and order and allow defendant to withdraw the guilty plea.

 (1971), 52 Wis. 2d 651, 662-664, 191 N. W. 2d 214.

 (1971), 404 U. S. 257, 92 Sup. Ct. 495, 30 L. Ed. 2d 427.

 Ernst v. State (1969), 43 Wis. 2d 661, 673, 170 N. W. 2d 713; McAllister v. State ante, p. 224, 194 N. W. 2d 639.