Court Opinion

ID: 9717796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:10:23.599102+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:55.467673
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring in result.
I am in accordance and sympathy with the purpose in the majority opinion to clearly state the law governing the situation where a defendant stands before the judge and pleads guilty but "maintains his innocence." As I read the cases of Harshman v. State, (1953) 232 Ind. 618, 115 N.E.2d 501, and Boles v. State, (1973) 261 Ind. 354, 303 N.E.2d 645, I am led to regard them as basically consistent. Harshman voices con*425cern for the fact the record disclosed that "no evidence whatever pointing to appellant's guilt was adduced, either before, during or after the entry, of the plea." Boles has the same thread. "Therefore, where a guilty plea is accompanied with protestation of innocence and unaccompanied by evidence showing a factual basis for guilt, the trial court should never accept it." The reality is, I believe, that this type of litigation has been brought under the umbrella of the statutes governing guilty pleas, ie., Ind.Code §§ 85-85-1-2 and 35-85-1-8 and the present trial and appellate approach is to deal with this issue within that framework. Cf. Lombardo v. State, (1981) Ind., 429 N.E.2d 243. I therefore believe that a better bright line for judges and lawyers would be the one drawn by the admonition, "STICK TO THE STATUTES". Under the statutory scheme, protestations of innocence are to be evaluated within that part of the guilty plea process by which the court seeks to satisfy itself "from its examination of the defendant or the evidence presented that there is a factual basis for the plea." Ind.Code § 85-85-1-8(b).