Court Opinion

ID: 9739919
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:23:39.951989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:14.756929
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, CHIEF JUSTICE
¶ 35. (concurring). I agree with the defendant that a circuit court should give an accused an opportunity to withdraw a guilty plea when the circuit court intends to impose a sentence greater than that recommended by the state pursuant to a plea agreement. Thus, I express my agreement with those Wisconsin circuit courts that presently let an accused know when the circuit court considers the recommended sentence *313unacceptable and affords the accused an opportunity to withdraw a guilty plea. See Wis JI — Criminal SM-32 at 18, n.ll.
¶ 36. I join the mandate in this case, however, because I conclude that any such change in our current plea practice should be made by this court not in a case but rather through its rule-making procedure, Wis. Stat. § 751.12 (1997-98).
¶ 37. Under the current procedure endorsed by this court, an accused who pleads guilty must give up the valuable right to trial, while a prosecutor gives up very little because the circuit court makes the ultimate sentencing decision.1 Although an accused is told that a prosecutor's sentencing recommendation is not binding on the circuit court, many lawyers and accuseds believe that the circuit courts will accept the recommendation. And, as best we can tell, most circuit courts do, most of the time.
¶ 38. In my view, fundamental fairness requires that an accused not be entrapped into a plea agreement. State v. Thomas, 294 A.2d 57, 61 (N.J. 1972). A full understanding of the consequences of a plea is impossible when accuseds plead guilty believing that they have negotiated a specific length of sentence only to find that they are bound by an act of self-conviction, while the circuit court is free to impose any sentence within the statutory range. State v. Killebrew, 330 N.W.2d 834, 843 (Mich. 1984). I agree with the Michigan supreme court, which analyzed the fairness issue as follows:
*314Although the prosecutorial "recommendation" would seem to inform the defendant of the consequences of his plea — that the prosecutor is merely suggesting a sentence and that the judge is not bound to follow the recommendation — the truth is that most defendants rely on the prosecutor's ability to secure the sentence when offering a guilty plea. This is true even when the court specifically admonishes the defendant that it is not bound by the prosecutor's recommendation. All disclaimers that the court is not bound are often viewed as ceremonial incantations (citations omitted).
To most defendants, the distinction between a sentence agreement and a sentence recommendation is little more than a variation in nomenclature.2
¶ 39. As the majority opinion acknowledges at ¶ 32, the arguments that the defendant in the present case has set forth for plea withdrawal have convinced a majority of jurisdictions to require trial courts to warn an accused when the court is going to reject part of a plea agreement and to allow an accused to withdraw the guilty plea. Such a plea practice is consistent with the ALI Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure §§ 350.5(4) and 350.6 (1975) and the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice Plea of Guilty § 3.3(e) (3d ed. 1999). However, these jurisdictions, the commentators and the defendant in the present case differ on the details of the plea withdrawal procedure.
¶ 40. This court rejected one variation of a plea withdrawal procedure in a 1986 rule proposal. See In the Matter of the Amendment of Rules of Civil & Criminal Procedure: Sections 971.07 & 971.08, Stats., 128 Wis. 2d 422, 383 N.W.2d 496 (1986) (criticizing the *315proposal as requiring the circuit court to take an active part in the plea agreement process). Other proposals address the concerns this court expressed in 1986. The Michigan supreme court recognized the dangers of involving a trial court judge in the plea agreement process but nonetheless established a required practice akin to that requested by the defendant in the present case. See People v. Killebrew, 330 N.W.2d 834, 841 (Mich. 1982). I have not determined which of the various proposals I would favor.
¶ 41. In 1986 the Wisconsin Department of Justice advised the court that the department strongly favored the adoption of the proposed rule regarding withdrawal of guilty pleas to assure that "the plea agreement process is uniform [across the state], fair to all parties and deserving of public confidence."3 For the reasons set forth by the Department of Justice, I conclude that this court should adopt a rule, either on its own motion or on a petition brought to the court and after a public hearing, to allow plea withdrawal when a circuit court will not accept a prosecutor's sentence recommendation pursuant to a plea agreement.
¶ 42. For the reasons set forth, I concur in the mandate but write separately.
¶ 43. I am authorized to state that Justice ANN WALSH BRADLEY joins this concurrence.

 The court of appeals recognized "the significant risk taken by a criminal defendant who gives up valuable constitutional rights by pleading guilty in exchange for a sentencing recommendation that may go completely unheeded." State v. Williams, No. 99-0752-CR, unpublished slip op. at 5 (1999).

 State v. Killebrew, 330 N.W.2d 834, 842-43 (Mich. 1984).

 See In the Matter of the Amendment of Rules of Civil & Criminal Procedure: Sections 971.07 & 971.08, Stats., 128 Wis. 2d 422, 430, 383 N.W.2d 496 (1986) (Abrahamson, J., dissenting).