Court Opinion

ID: 9680685
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:36:37.693226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:29.966157
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I think we should bear in mind that at present there is no means by which an indigent can obtain the services of a lawyer to draft his 27.26 motion before it is filed. Of necessity most 27.26 motions are originally prepared pro se or with the help of fellow inmates and filed with the court in crude condition. Hence, we should not expect professional quality at this point and should be liberal in giving pro se pleadings the benefit of the doubt as to whether they are sufficient to raise an issue of fact. Here, as stated, the allegation “movant was induced to enter a plea of guilty ... by promises and threats” is a conclusion. It is an allegation, however, which is susceptible of being amended to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and defendant’s point (c) about “Additional grounds to be amended by counsel” was a call for help in stating his claim.
In civil cases we have the rule that “Ordinarily when a first pleading is ruled to be insufficient in a trial court, the party is afforded a reasonable time to file an amended pleading if desired . . .”, Dietrich v. Pulitzer Publishing Co., 422 S.W.2d 330, 334 (Mo.1968); Gridley v. Johnson, 476 S.W.2d 475, 484 (Mo.1972); civil rules 55.53 and 67.05. In fairness, we should be as liberal in allowing a second opportunity to state a claim for relief when human liberty is at stake as we are in civil actions, especially where a defendant is proceeding pro se and incorporates in his motion a request that a lawyer be appointed and the motion amended. We applied this theory in Burrage v. State, 477 S.W.2d 118, 120 (Mo.1972), which involved a somewhat analogous situation. There this court, on appeal from denial of relief on a 27.26 motion, where there had been no evidentiary hearing in the trial court, remanded for an evidentiary hearing, for the reason that one of the grounds set forth in the pro se motion to vacate did raise issues of fact, although “sparingly”. At the same time, the court ruled, with respect to four grounds in the motion, that if defendant intended to rely on these grounds he should be given an opportunity to amend and “. . . they should be amplified and fortified with sufficient allegations of fact, if such facts exist.”
*774The right to file a motion under 27.26 is hollow if we determine the man’s rights without ever giving him a chance to advise with an attorney in the trial court, which is the place for defendant to come forth with the facts on which he relies. The majority opinion seems to place significance on the fact that defendant’s counsel on appeal did not suggest to us what the “facts” might be relative to defendant’s second ground of his motion that he was induced to enter his plea by promises and threats. But it does no good for counsel to suggest on appeal what these facts might be, because that would be going outside the record and we could not properly consider it. Therefore, no significance should be attached to counsel’s lack of suggesting possible facts. The place for that is in the trial court and so far this defendant has had no opportunity in the trial court to present facts.
In State v. Garner, 412 S.W.2d 155 (Mo.1967), the court reversed and remanded for an evidentiary hearing a 27.26 motion which had been denied in the trial court without counsel and without a hearing. This was done despite the fact, 412 S.W.2d 1. c. 156, that “several of the assignments in the motion to vacate are too general to present anything for review .” The court goes on, 412 S.W.2d 1. c. 157, that “. . . we cannot help but observe that assistance of counsel in preparing and filing an amended motion adequately stating all issues involved, in presenting the evidence in a clear and orderly manner, and finally in briefing the case as contemplated by applicable rule would make much easier the task of the trial and appellate courts in resolving the questions involved.”
I would reverse and remand with directions that before the court rules on the motion it should appoint counsel and give defendant an opportunity to amend by stating the facts as to the promises and threats which he contends were made to induce him to plead guilty.