Court Opinion

ID: 9792426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:29:15.902397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:42.800509
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(dissenting) — The majority states the issue in this case as "whether the State, when relying upon a conviction based upon a guilty plea to establish habitual criminal status, must show that the defendant was aware of this right [to remain silent]." Majority opinion, at 310-11. The majority's holding, however, goes much further to require that the State prove that the defendant was expressly informed of each right. Neither Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 23 L. Ed. 2d 274, 89 S. Ct. 1709 (1969) nor our decision in Wood v. Morris, 87 Wn.2d 501, 554 P.2d 1032 (1976) mandates this result. For this and other reasons set forth below, I dissent.
In Boykin, the United States Supreme Court set out the standard for reviewing guilty pleas. The Court indicated that the record must show, or there must be evidence to show, that the waiver involved in a plea of guilty was made voluntarily and with awareness of the rights relinquished. *320The Court said that " [ijgnorance, incomprehension, coercion, terror, inducements, subtle or blatant threats might be a perfect cover-up of unconstitutionality." Boykin, at 242-43. The Court summarized the constitutional rights waived by pleading guilty and concluded the utmost solicitude of which courts are capable is demanded, to make sure that the accused has a full understanding of what the plea connotes and of its consequence.
Boykin represents the Court's concern that the record of a guilty plea be adequate to insulate the judgment from attack.4 The majority converts this concern for demonstrating the voluntariness of a plea into a specific procedural requirement that the defendant be informed of each and every constitutional right. This is not the law.
In construing Boykin and McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 22 L. Ed. 2d 418, 89 S. Ct. 1166 (1969), the federal circuit courts have concluded that it was not the intent of the United States Supreme Court to invalidate guilty pleas simply because a trial judge failed to alert a defendant to all of the constitutional rights he was waiving, so long as the record otherwise showed that the plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered. United States v. Sherman, 474 F.2d 303 (9th Cir. 1973); United States v. Webb, 433 F.2d 400 (1st Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 958 (1971); Wade v. Coiner, 468 F.2d 1059 (4th Cir. 1972) (a catechism of constitutional rights is not required); McChesney v. Henderson, 482 F.2d 1101 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1146 (1974); Hansen v. Mathews, 424 F.2d 1205 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1057 (1970); *321United States v. Vallejo, 476 F.2d 667 (3d Cir. 1973); United States v. Cantor, 469 F.2d 435 (3d Cir. 1972); United States v. Frontero, 452 F.2d 406 (5th Cir. 1971); Summers v. United States, 538 F.2d 1208 (5th Cir. 1976); Fontaine v. United States, 526 F.2d 514 (6th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 973 (1976); Wilkins v. Erickson, 505 F.2d 761 (9th Cir. 1974). Contra, French v. Henderson, 317 F. Supp. 25 (W.D. La. 1970).
State courts have generally taken the same approach. State v. Zaye, 108 Ariz. 13, 492 P.2d 392 (1972); State v. Jackson, 16 Ariz. App. 388, 493 P.2d 934 (1972); State v. Bell, 210 N.W.2d 423 (Iowa 1973); People v. Minson, 24 Mich. App. 692, 180 N.W.2d 805 (1970); People v. Mendoza, 48 Ill. 2d 371, 270 N.E.2d 30 (1971).5 Cf. In re Tahl, 1 Cal. 3d 122, 460 P.2d 449, 81 Cal. Rptr. 577, cert. denied, 398 U.S. 911 (1970); Higby v. Sheriff of Clark Cy., 86 Nev. 774, 476 P.2d 959 (1970).
In United States v. Frontero, supra at 415, the Fifth Circuit, discussing a contention that the defendant was entitled to specific monition as to the constitutional rights waived by the plea in the context of Fed. R. Crim. P. 11, said:
This Court is, however, aware of no precedent, from the Supreme Court or elsewhere, for the proposition that due process requires that a defendant be informed of each and every right which is waived by a guilty plea or that the waiver of these rights is a "consequence", within the meaning of Rule 11, of which a defendant must be personally informed before a guilty plea may be accepted.
*322Reliance upon Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 23 L. Ed. 2d 274, 89 S. Ct. 1709 (1969) for such a proposition, the court said, was misplaced. Boykin involved a silent record, wherein there was absolutely no showing that the guilty plea was intelligently and voluntarily entered.
In McChesney v. Henderson, supra, the Fifth Circuit said that no rule of criminal procedure was mandated by Boykin, and there is no express requirement that specific articulation of the three constitutional rights mentioned in it be given to the accused at the time of the acceptance of a plea of guilty, but it is necessary that the record show that the guilty plea was intelligently and voluntarily made.
In Washington, the first definitive interpretation of Boykin v. Alabama, supra (the Supreme Court decision upon which State v. Holsworth, 93 Wn.2d 148, 607 P.2d 845 (1980) was based) was contained in Wood v. Morris, 87 Wn.2d 501, 554 P.2d 1032 (1976).
In Wood, the petitioner, in a habeas corpus proceeding, sought to nullify the mandatory minimum sentence imposed upon him because he was armed with a firearm at the time he killed his victim, on the ground that he was not adequately informed of that consequence of his guilty plea before he entered it. At the beginning of the opinion, this court stated the rule it was adopting:
[HJereafter the record of the plea hearing must affirmatively disclose a guilty plea was made intelligently and voluntarily, with an understanding of the full consequences of such a plea.
Wood, at 503.
In elaborating upon this holding, we said that adherence to CrR 4.2 accomplishes that purpose. This rule does not require the trial judge to ask the defendant, at the plea hearing, whether he understands that he has the right to remain silent. It does, however, require the following:
(d) Voluntariness. The court shall not accept a plea of guilty, without first determining that it is made voluntarily, competently and with an understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequences of the plea.
*323(g) Written Statement. A written statement of the defendant. . . shall be filed on a plea of guilty:
5. The court has told me that:
(a) I have the right to have counsel (a lawyer), and that if I cannot afford to pay for counsel, one will be provided at no expense to me.
(b) I have the right to a trial by jury.
(c) I have the right to hear and question witnesses who testify against me.
(d) I have the right to have witnesses testify for me. These witnesses can be made to appear at no expense to me.
(e) The charge must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Under our holding in Wood, in cases tried after 1976, the record must affirmatively disclose the defendant's intelligent waiver. This requirement was expressly bottomed on the rule itself and not on the constitution. With respect to constitutional requirements, we held that under Boykin v. Alabama, supra, it is sufficient if evidence exists to in some manner indicate that an intelligent and voluntary waiver of the rights of jury trial, confrontation of witnesses, and silence was made.
This court held that these rules, both the constitutional rule and the rule based on CrR 4.2, should have only prospective application.
In State v. Holsworth, supra, this court held that to apply the Boykin doctrine to former convictions relied upon by the State in a habitual criminal proceeding is neither collateral nor retroactive in nature. We concluded that Wood was not controlling insofar as it made the Boykin rule apply only prospectively.
Citing Boykin, we said in Holsworth that in order for a conviction on a guilty plea to be valid for evidentiary purposes in a habitual criminal proceeding, the defendant must be advised on the consequences of his plea. We said:
The consequences of which the defendant must be advised include not only the sentencing alternatives pos*324sible, [but] . . . [t]he defendant must also be apprised of his constitutional rights to remain silent, to confront accusers, and to jury trial. He must be made aware that his guilty plea necessarily waives those rights. Boykin, supra at 243.
(Italics mine.) Holsworth, at 153.
This court also stated, at page 161, that
[t]he State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the plea was knowingly made after the defendant was apprised of the . . . constitutional rights to jury trial, to confrontation, and to remain silent. . .
This language in Holsworth does lend itself to the interpretation that the judge must give specific advice as to the privilege against self-incrimination. It does not state, however, that the advice must come from the judge. I do not believe it was our intent to require a ritualistic recitation of the rights which are waived, provided the record reveals that the defendant was aware of those rights.
A rule which requires express advisement celebrates form over substance. The court's focus should be on the issue of whether the plea is made voluntarily, competently, and with an understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequences of the plea. In addition, the judge should determine that there is a factual basis for the plea. CrR 4.2(d). When the court questions the defendant as to whether he has been coerced or induced by improper promises and satisfies itself that the plea is indeed voluntary, it has also satisfied the constitutional requirement. It is then clear that the defendant is not being compelled to testify against himself. This, I believe, is all that the Boy-kin Court had in mind when it said that a defendant who pleads guilty waives the privilege against self-incrimination, and that such waiver must be made knowingly.
It is true that the ABA standards now require more, as does Fed. R. Crim. P. 11. 3 American Bar Ass'n, Standards for Criminal Justice, Std. 14-1.4 (2d ed. 1980) provides for the duties of the trial judge with respect to acceptance of pleas. Subparagraph (a)(iv) requires the court to address *325the defendant and determine that he understands
that by pleading guilty the defendant waives the right to a speedy and public trial, including the right to trial by jury; the right to insist at a trial that the prosecution establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; the right to testify at a trial and the right not to testify at a trial; the right at a trial to be confronted by the witnesses against the defendant, to present witnesses in the defendant's behalf, and to have compulsory process in securing their attendance;
On the other hand, the standard no longer requires that the court determine whether the defendant understands that he need not plead guilty.
By adopting a per se rule such as that suggested by the majority, the focus has shifted from voluntariness of the plea to a talismanic recital of rights. Such a shift is neither wise nor constitutionally required. Furthermore, it unnecessarily jeopardizes a substantial number of guilty pleas which were freely and voluntarily made but do not fit into the majority's model of an ideal guilty plea.
In the cases before us, it is evident from the record that the defendants understood they could not be compelled to plead guilty and waive a jury trial and that they did so freely and voluntarily with knowledge of their significant rights, as well as the nature of the charge and the consequences of their pleas. The Court of Appeals did not err in refusing to upset the trial court's findings, since there was ample evidence that the pleas were made freely and voluntarily, with full knowledge of the consequences. For instance, the majority admits that Chervenell's attorney was willing to testify that his client was aware of his right to remain silent. Under these circumstances, it is simply unfair to the State to reverse these convictions.
Finally, I must also note my dissent to the majority's analysis concerning Chervenell's knowledge as to the amount of marijuana he possessed. As explained in the well reasoned Court of Appeals opinion, the evidence on this issue was also adequate to support the conclusion that Chervenell's plea was freely made.
*326I would thus affirm these convictions.
Brachtenbach, Dore, and Dimmick, JJ., concur with Rosellini, J.
Reconsideration denied June 22, 1983.

 In commenting on the need for an appropriate record, the Court cited Commonwealth ex rel. West v. Rundle, 428 Pa. 102, 105-06, 237 A.2d 196, 197-98 (1968). That court noted:
A majority of criminal convictions are obtained after a plea of guilty. If these convictions are to be insulated from attack, the trial court is best advised to conduct an on the record examination of the defendant which should include, inter alia, an attempt to satisfy itself that the defendant understands the nature of the charges, his right to a jury trial, the acts sufficient to constitute the offenses for which he is charged and the permissible range of sentences.
(Footnotes omitted.)

 A different result is reached in some circuit cases reviewing district court decisions, rather than state court decisions, which, of course, are decided under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11. See United States v. Gearin, 496 F.2d 691 (5th Cir. 1974); United States v. Escandar, 465 F.2d 438 (5th Cir. 1972) (dictum). But compare United States v. Vallejo, supra at 671, holding that. . once the court has satisfied itself . . . that the guilty plea was made knowingly and voluntarily, an independent warning against self-incrimination becomes unnecessary" (citing Davis v. United States, 470 F.2d 1128, 1132 (3d Cir. 1972)).
Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(c)(3) requires the court to inform the defendant of and determine that he understands "the right not to be compelled to incriminate himself".