Court Opinion

ID: 9791876
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:19:53.971868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:39.170872
License: Public Domain

URBIGKIT, Chief Justice,
concurring in the result, with whom GOLDEN, Justice, joins.
I concur in affirming the decision and the sufficiency of the trial court proceedings for proper entry of the guilty plea. However, I would not agree to reach that result by creating a harmless error disconnect for attachment to our established strict compliance standard for application of W.R.Cr.P. 15. Harmless error and strict compliance cannot be mechanically or logically operated together. They are intrinsically antagonistic and mutually exclusive concepts. This court, by present opinion, goes even further than suggested or requested by the State, which in brief announced:
It is important to understand that the State, in advocating for resolution of the sentencing question pursuant to the holding in Worthen v. Meachum, supra [842 F.2d 1179 (10th Cir.1988) ], eschews argument for adoption of a so-called “harmless error” rule. Crawford v. State, Wyo., 701 P.2d 1150 at 1153 (1985). It is the position of the State that error cannot be predicated upon the defendant’s understanding of sentencing options when, at the time of his guilty plea, the defendant affirms on the record his precise understanding of possible sentences by describing those sentences in response to a non-leading question from his own attorney.
I agree with the posture espoused in that statement by the State in behalf of affirming the action of the trial court. There is here neither the need for nor am I willing to add any harmless error attachment to the present W.R.Cr.P. 15 mechanism. Smallwood v. State, 748 P.2d 1141 (Wyo.1988); Cardenas v. Meacham, 545 P.2d 632, 635 (Wyo.1976).