Court Opinion

ID: 9483111
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:11:23.665552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:25.798451
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting, joined by Judges TANG and NORRIS:
Adams signed a stipulation admitting the existence beyond a reasonable doubt of every element of the charged offenses. In my view, this is tantamount to a guilty plea. We took this case en banc to decide whether Adams is entitled to the same constitutional protections accorded defendants who plead guilty. The majority concludes wrongly that Adams was not entitled to these protections.
I cannot imagine what more Adams could have done to acknowledge his guilt short of uttering, “I plead guilty.” Adams’s stipulation tracked the words of the indictment identically. He stated that “[w]ith respect to Count II of the indictment charging Rape in the First Degree, the defendant ... did unlawfully and knowingly cause his penis to penetrate the vagina of Marylee Donley, a female, and at the time of his sexual intercourse, Marylee Donley was subjected to forcible compulsion by the defendant.” Adams’s admissions of guilt to the burglary and sodomy charges were equally comprehensive.
Adams’s stipulation also revealed his intent, a fact uniquely within his own knowledge. Adams stated that “the defendant, without consent, legal authority, or other justification, entered and remained in the residence of Marylee Donley located at 725 East 44th Street, Eugene, Oregon, and, further, that at the time of the entering and remaining, the defendant had the intent to commit the crimes of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse.”
Moreover, Adams did not challenge or intend to challenge any of the government’s evidence. Instead, he agreed that “[bjased on this stipulation, it is the expectation of the parties that the defendant will be found guilty of Count I, Count II, and Count III.” Adams fully expected to be found guilty of each charge on the basis of his stipulation.1
The trial court had no rational choice but to convict Adams of each offense. The judge accepted the stipulation and summarily pronounced Adams guilty: “Stipulated facts will be filed with the clerk, and I’ll read those over. You may be seated. All right, I would find the Defendant guilty of Count I, Burglary in the First Degree, Count II, Rape in the First Degree, and Count III, Sodomy in the First Degree.”
Adams’s stipulation resulted inexorably in his conviction just as surely as if he pled guilty. By stipulating to each element of the charged offenses, Adams effectively waived every constitutional privilege and right he would have waived had he pled guilty — including the privilege against self-incrimination, the right to confront one’s accusers, and the right to be heard by a jury of one’s peers. See Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 243, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1712, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969).
To satisfy due process, waiver of a constitutional right must be “an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.” Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938). Longstanding Supreme Court precedent holds that a defendant’s waiver of constitutional rights in criminal proceedings must be made in open court and on the record. In Boykin, the Court held that “[w]e cannot presume a waiver of these ... important federal rights from a silent record.” Boykin, 395 U.S. at 243, 89 S.Ct. at 1712.
The majority holds that waiver on the record is not required when the accused enters into a stipulation so comprehensive that nothing remains but to pronounce guilt. The majority’s holding undermines Boykin’s admonition that waiver will not be presumed from a silent record.
*849In Boykin, the Supreme Court stated that “[a] plea of guilty is more than a confession which admits that the accused did various acts; it is itself a conviction; nothing remains but to give judgment and determine punishment.” Boykin, 395 U.S. at 242, 89 S.Ct. at 1711-12. The majority believes this language, which contrasts guilty pleas with confessions, indicates that Boykin distinguished between formal and de facto guilty pleas.
Boykin makes no such distinction. According to Boykin, a guilty plea is not characterized by formal words, but by whether “nothing remains but to give judgment and determine punishment.” Id.
In Boykin, the Supreme Court characterized a guilty plea as “more than a voluntary confession made in open court.... [A guilty plea] serves as a stipulation that no proof by the prosecution need be advanced. ... It supplies both evidence and verdict, ending controversy.” Boykin, 395 U.S. at 242 n. 4, 89 S.Ct. at 1712 n. 4 (emphasis added) (quoting Woodard v. State, 42 Ala.App. 552, 558, 171 So.2d 462, 469 (1965)).
This characterization applies completely to Adams’s case. Nothing remained for the trial court other than to find Adams guilty as charged, and pronounce sentence. No further evidence was needed. Adams’s stipulation provided both the evidence and the verdict, and effectively ended the controversy. In these circumstances, I believe the trial court was required to ascertain on the record that Adams understood that by entering a stipulation tantamount to a guilty plea, he was in effect waiving his Boykin rights. Cf. United States v. Terrack, 515 F.2d 558, 562 (9th Cir.1975) (Ely, Circuit Judge, dissenting) (The “stipulation to the prosecution’s entire case was, exactly like a guilty plea, a stipulation that no proof by the prosecutor was necessary. Once the stipulation was made, the controversy was effectively terminated, and accordingly, the trial judge summarily made his judgment of conviction. Thus, [the] stipulation contained the basic characteristics that, under Supreme Court doctrine, delineate a plea of guilty. This being true, all incidents to the acceptance of a plea of guilty should attach.”).
Stressing judicial economy, the majority opinion holds that waiver on the record is not necessary for the trial court to accept a de facto guilty plea. The majority draws a tidy bright line between the defendant who formally pleads guilty (or nolo contendere) and the defendant who does not. If the defendant offers a guilty plea the trial court must ensure that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waives his constitutional rights. If the defendant does not formally plead guilty, the opinion concludes that the trial court need make no inquiry into the defendant’s waiver of constitutional rights.
According to the majority, “these are areas with a clear division between them. They are either black or white. To create a gray area where stipulations, as a part of trial, would be governed by the rules on the acceptance of pleas would further complicate the trial judge’s duties and push him further into the role of an advocate.” Ante at 840 (quoting Terrack, 515 F.2d at 561 n. 3). I reject the notion that following Boykin’s, rules on the acceptance of pleas would complicate the trial judge’s job, or that efforts to preserve and respect accused’s constitutional rights turn judges into advocates.
In this case, the trial judge could have ascertained within a few minutes whether Adams clearly understood that he was giving up important constitutional rights, including the right to testify on his own behalf, the right to confront his accusers, and the right to a jury trial. By spending a few more minutes with Adams, the trial judge could have ensured that Adams waived those constitutional rights knowingly and intelligently, and several appellate courts would have been spared countless hours of work.
Boykin teaches that “[w]hat is at stake for an accused facing death or imprisonment demands the utmost solicitude of which courts are capable in canvassing the matter with the accused to make sure he has a full understanding of what the plea connotes and of its consequence.” Boykin, *850395 U.S. at 243-44, 89 S.Ct. at 1712. The exercise of “utmost solicitude” by trial judges in criminal matters ensures that our constitutional rights are preserved and respected. Because that was not done here, I dissent.
APPENDIX
Stipulation of David Adams
COMES NOW the parties in the above case, the defendant in person by and through his attorney, Robert C. Hansen, and the State of Oregon by and through Joseph Martin Kosydar, Assistant District Attorney for Lane County, and enter into the following stipulation.
That the evidence of the State would establish the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt:
(1) That the events described in this stipulation occurred on September 7, 1981 in Lane County, Oregon;
(2) With respect to Count I of the indictment charging Burglary in the First Degree, the defendant, without consent, legal authority, or other justification, entered and remained in the residence of Marylee Donley located at 725 East 44th Street, Eugene, Oregon, and, further, that at the time of the entering and remaining, the defendant had the intent to commit the crimes of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse;
(3) With respect to Count II of the indictment charging Rape in the First Degree, the defendant at the time described in number (1) above, did unlawfully and knowingly cause his penis to penetrate the vagina of Marylee Donley, a female, and at the time of his sexual intercourse, Marylee Donley was subjected to forcible compulsion by the defendant;
(4) With respect to Count III of the indictment charging Sodomy in the First Degree, the defendant at the time described in number (1) above, did unlawfully and knowingly cause his penis to contact the anus of Marylee Donley, a female, and at the time of this deviate sexual intercourse, Marylee Donley was subjected to forcible compulsion by the defendant.
Based on this stipulation, it is the expectation of the parties that the defendant will be found guilty of Count I, Count II, and Count III.

. The stipulation is attached as an appendix.