Court Opinion

ID: 9592890
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:17:44.054423+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:44.011255
License: Public Domain

LUMPKIN, Judge, specially
concurring:
¶ 1 I concur in the decision to affirm the conviction and death sentence. However, I write separately to address the following issues.
¶ 2 Petitioner’s first allegation of error, that his confessions were obtained in violation of his constitutional right to remain silent, was not raised in his motion to withdraw guilty plea. An issue may not be raised in the petition for a writ of certiorari unless the same has been raised in the application to withdraw the plea. Rule 4.2(B), Rules of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Ch. 18, App. (1998). (This same requirement was set out in Rule 4.1(A) in 1992 when the motion was filed.) Therefore, this issue is not properly before the Court.
¶ 3 Further, any error in admitting Petitioner’s confessions was waived by the plea of guilty. McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 466, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 1171, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969), superseded on other grounds by statute, Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(H) (entering a knowing and voluntary guilty plea waives several constitutional rights, including the right against compulsory self-incrimination); Corn v. State of Oklahoma, 394 F.2d 478 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 917, 89 S.Ct. 245, 21 L.Ed.2d 203 (1968) (a voluntary guilty plea waives all nonjurisdictional defects in proceedings preliminary thereto). Therefore, it is not necessary that we address the issue on its merits.
¶ 4 The format of the opinion also skews the nature of the review in this case. As noted previously, Rule 4.2(B) provides “[n]o matter may be raised in the petition for a writ of certiorari unless the same has been raised in the application to withdraw the plea, ...” In addition, this Court must conduct a mandatory sentence review in capital cases. See Grasso v. State, 857 P.2d 802, 808 (Okl.Cr.1993); Wallace v. State, 893 P.2d 504 (Okl.Cr.1995). The application to withdraw the plea of guilty set out the basis for the plea withdrawal:
1. The guilty pleas were entered without the adequate advice of counsel concerning, and through Defendant’s inadvertence and ignorance of, the nature and legal consequences of the charges against him.
2. The guilty pleas were entered without the adequate advise of counsel concerning, and through Defendant’s inadvertence and ignorance of, the nature and legal consequences of the factual evidence against him.
3. The Defendant was influenced to enter his pleas of guilty and did so on the basis of material misunderstandings.
4. The Defendant’s pleas of guilty were made in undue haste, without sufficient time to deliberate on the nature and consequences of those pleas and without a full understanding of the factual evidence against him.
5. Defendant’s pleas were not entered freely, voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently.
6. There was an insufficient factual basis to support convictions on the charges to which Defendant pled guilty.
7. The Defendant was never informed of information which would have supported defenses to the charges to which he pled guilty.
8. The Defendant had valid defenses to the charges against him and those defenses should have been presented to a jury.
9. The Defendant was not competent to waive his constitutional rights and enter his pleas of guilty in a knowing and intelli*13gent manner due to mental, neurological, chemical, or intellectual impairment.
10. The Defendant was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel.
¶ 5 The review of the denial of the application to withdraw the plea by the District Court is limited because when a defendant enters a guilty plea then seeks to withdraw that plea, the only concern is whether the plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered. Frederick v. State, 811 P.2d 601, 603 (Okl.Cr.1991). In addition, when evaluating the validity of a guilty plea, we are concerned only with whether or not the plea was entered voluntarily and intelligently. Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). In Ocampo v. State, 778 P.2d 920 (Okl.Cr.1989), we held the requirements set forth in King v. State, 553 P.2d 529 (Okl.Cr.1976), are to be used as a guideline “in establishing the totality of the circumstances surrounding the guilty plea which will provide a proper record to determine its validity.” Ocampo, 778 P.2d at 923. The voluntariness of the plea is to be determined by examining the entire record. Berget v. State, 824 P.2d 364, 372 (Okl.Cr.1991), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 841, 113 S.Ct. 124, 121 L.Ed.2d 79 (1992). When a defendant claims that his guilty plea was entered through inadvertence, ignorance, influence or without deliberation, he has the burden of showing that the plea was entered as a result of one of these reasons and that there is a defense that should be presented to the jury. Estell v. State, 766 P.2d 1380, 1383 (Okl.Cr.1988).
¶ 6 Reviewing the District Court’s decision within the context of the limitations of Certiorari review set out above, together with the mandatory sentence review set out in Grasso and Wallace, I concur in the results reached by the Court in this ease.