Court Opinion

ID: 9744433
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:03:05.698468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:49.235807
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE GEORGE MORAN, dissenting: The defendant was charged with the crime of murder, and when he first appeared for arraignment his lawyer advised the trial court that in his opinion defendant was incompetent to the extent that he was unable to cooperate with his counsel in assisting in his defense. The trial court then continued the case for a competency hearing. At the competency hearing the defendant introduced one witness, and the case was then submitted to a jury which found him competent to stand trial. After the competency hearing the trial court informed the defendant that they had been going through the form of having a competency hearing that morning and that the juiy found him sane and capable of going to trial and that his lawyer had advised the trial court that defendant desired to plead guilty. The trial court then advised him that the grand jury had indicted him for killing with a gun without legal justification; that he was entitled to a jury trial, to the services of an attorney and that upon his plea of guilty the trial court could sentence him to an indeterminate term of not less than 14 years. The trial court then accepted defendant’s plea of guilty and, following the recommendation of the State’s attorney, sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 45 years in the penitentiary. Defendant did not file a direct appeal, but filed a petition under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act. Prior to the time of the post-conviction proceeding, the defendant tried to obtain a transcript of the evidence heard during his competency hearing, but was informed by the court reporter that the notes had been destroyed. Both parties agree that only one witness testified at defendant’s competency hearing, a Dr. Burton Bagby, who was called as a witness at the evidentiary hearing on defendant’s post-conviction proceeding. He testified that he had known the defendant since childhood. He had been called to testify at the sanity hearing but did not remember what his testimony was, although he remembered talking to defendant and his lawyer on the day of the competency hearing. Defendant testified that he was in the courtroom on the morning of February 18, 1963, and that there was a group of people in the jury box. He did not sit at the counsel table. He stated that he saw Dr. Bagby there that morning and that Dr. Bagby came over and spoke to him, but that the doctor did not testify. He said he was there when the jury went out and that when they returned they handed a piece of paper to the judge. I conclude that the lack of a transcript cannot be blamed on the defendant, as the parties at the post-conviction proceeding did their best to reconstruct the testimony heard at the competency hearing with no success. At the conclusion of the post-conviction proceeding, the trial court stated: “From my understanding of the law, the party who alleges incompetency to stand trial has the burden of proof. That was this defendants burden and the jury found that he did not sustain it. Now, what the jury considered, the Court does not know from the record, but the verdict was returned.” The trial court then, on the same day, entered an order finding among other things that defendant was not given a transcript of the hearing on his competency and that none was available. The trial court further found that after the jury found defendant competent to stand trial, he knowingly and intelligently entered a voluntary plea to the indictment. In my opinion, the record does not affirmatively disclose that the defendant entered his plea knowingly and understandingly as required by Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S., 238, 23 L.Ed.2d 274, 89 S.Ct. 1709. In People v. Reeves, 50 Ill.2d 28, our supreme court said at pages 29-30: “The constitutional requirement, both pre and post Boykin, is that a plea of guilty be ‘intelligent and voluntary.’ Boykin adds the requirement that if the guilty plea is to withstand appellate or post-conviction review ‘the record must affirmatively disclose that the defendant who pleads guilty enters his plea understandingly and voluntarily.’ [Citation.] This requirement has been in effect in Illinois since 1948. See former Rule No. 27A, 400 Ill. 22.” In the presentence hearing the trial court did not explain the nature of the charge to the defendant, and no determination was made as to whether or not any force or threats or any promises were made to the defendant to obtain his plea. The record does not otherwise disclose that defendant’s plea was knowingly and voluntarily made. This case is very similar to the case of People v. Meredith, 21 Ill.App.3d 305, 314 N.E.2d 612, wherein we remanded with instructions to allow the defendant to plead anew. We should also reverse and remand because of the lack of a transcript of the evidence heard during defendant’s competency hearing, since its absence may not reasonably be attributed to the defendant. In People v. Couvion, 33 Ill.2d 408, our supreme court said at pages 410-11: "The absence of a transcript may not reasonably be attributed to defendant, as it is the clear statutory duty of the duly appointed court reporter to ‘* * * take full stenographic notes of the evidence in all trials and proceedings in the court for which he is appointed, and furnish forthwith one transcript of the same, correctly made, to either party to the suit or proceedings upon the request of such party or his attorney.’ (Emphasis ours.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1961, chap. 37, par. 331, as amended by act approved July 5, 1957). Under the peculiar circumstances here prevailing, the order of commitment can not stand in the absence of a showing that defendant actually was made aware of his right to be represented by counsel upon proof of indigence.” Through no fault of the defendant, we are unable to review whether or not the verdict of the jury finding the defendant competent was sustained by the evidence, because of the lack of a transcript. This case is now wide open for a habeas corpus proceeding in the Federal court. Carroll v. Beto (5th Cir. 1970), 421 F.2d 1065, For the foregoing reasons I dissent from the majority in this case.