Court Opinion

ID: 9852372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:29:20.368505+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:26.701346
License: Public Domain

LeGRAND, Justice
(special concurrence).
I concur in the result but disagree with much of what is said in reaching that conclusion.
I believe the inquiry conducted by the trial court fully and fairly met the principles established by both State v. Sisco, 169 N.W.2d 542 (Iowa 1969) and Brainard v. State, 222 N.W.2d 711 (Iowa 1974). I cannot agree with the majority’s reluctance to accept this and the strong suggestion the trial court should have done better.
In Sisco, we decried the use of any “ritualistic” procedure and said there need only be “meaningful” compliance with the rules announced there. In Brainard, we provided a question-by-question formula for trial courts as a “recommendation.” Yet the *784majority here, just as it did in Ryan v. Iowa State Penitentiary, 218 N.W.2d 616 (Iowa 1974), encourages the very stereotype procedure which we disavowed in Sisco and Brainard. I feel obliged to protest this approach for the same reason I dissented in Ryan and joined Justice Rees’ dissent in Brainard.
I have reviewed the record and cannot find any real difference between what the trial judge asked this defendant and what the majority says he should have asked him. Answers to the judge’s questions would have disclosed plea bargaining, if there had been any, just as surely as if the words plea bargaining had been used in framing those questions. .
Neither do I think we should any longer pursue the illusory notion that the more we tighten plea requirements, the fewer frivolous appeals we will entertain. Experience teaches the opposite is true.
The present appeal is a perfect example of this. Defendant now insists his attorney promised him a parole in return for a guilty plea. Yet at the time his plea was entered, he said no promises had been made to induce his plea. He is now saying he wasn’t truthful then. How would this have changed if the trial court had used the magic words “plea bargaining”? His answer at that time still would have been no, and his claim now still would have been yes. I believe the procedure followed by the trial court was entirely proper and adequate.
MOORE, C. J., and REES and UHLEN-HOPP, JJ., join this special concurrence.