Court Opinion

ID: 9563858
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:48:24.79784+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:05.878189
License: Public Domain

ERICKSON, Justice,
concurring in the result:
I concur in the result reached by the majority. I write separately to express my disagreement with that portion of Part III of the opinion that relates to prospectivity and retrospectivity. In my view, retro-spectivity is not an issue because the peti*1339tioner waived any objections to the search of his car by pleading guilty to the charge of second-degree burglary.
The facts in this case cause me to emphasize how little relevance the search and seizure has to the defendant’s guilty pleas. The attempted murder charge is tied to events which occurred on December 15, 1978. The defendant was burglarizing the victim’s house and his activities awakened the victim. The victim confronted the defendant in the living room. The defendant assaulted the victim and said: “You saw me. Now I am going to have to kill you, kill you.” The victim was stabbed many times but managed to escape and the police were called. The defendant was arrested by police officers while he was still inside the victim’s house. People v. Waits, 196 Colo. 35, 580 P.2d 391 (1978), referred to by the majority in addressing the prospectivity-retrospectivity issue, involves yet another burglary and an arrest and search in 1977. Multiple charges were pending against the defendant, and the defendant’s background reflected the defendant’s guilt of a number of other felonies in New Mexico. Defense counsel bargained for a sentence of 25 to 50 years. Offenses were selected that would fulfill the bargains sought and wipe the slate clean. I would not at this late date overturn the bargain and explore rights that were not in issue at the time the plea negotiations were finalized.
A plea of guilty that is intelligently, understanding^, and voluntarily made waives all nonjurisdictional defects, including any claim that evidence was illegally seized. United States v. Johnson, 634 F.2d 385 (8th Cir.1980). A plea of guilty is an admission of factual guilt, 3 LaFave, Search & Seizure § 11.1(d) (1978), and all nonjurisdictional objections relevant to the issue of factual guilt are rendered irrelevant by a guilty plea. Lucero v. People, 164 Colo. 247, 434 P.2d 128 (1967). The American Bar Association Standards of Criminal Justice relating to guilty pleas are in accord. Standard 14-1.4 states that a guilty plea should not be accepted unless the defendant understands “that by pleading guilty the defendant waives the right to object ... to evidence allegedly obtained in violation of constitutional rights....” Standards of Criminal Justice § 14-1.4(a)(v) (1980). See also Stone v. State, 108 Idaho 822, 702 P.2d 860 (App.1984); People v. Wilkens, 139 Mich.App. 778, 362 N.W.2d 862 (1984).
The fact that People v. Thomas, 660 P.2d 1272 (Colo.1983), changed the relevant Colorado law on search and seizure does not make the plea any less voluntary or intelligent. The majority opinion concedes as much. See majority op. at 1335. Two cases from the “Brady trilogy” are also pertinent.1 In McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970), the defendants were convicted on the basis of their pleas of guilty. A number of years later, the Court declared that the New York procedure by which juries decided admissibility of confessions was unconstitutional.2 The defendants then sought habeas corpus relief, claiming that their confessions were coerced and that they pleaded guilty because of the New York law which was later held to be unconstitutional. The Court rejected the collateral attacks, stating:
[The defendant who pleads guilty] is convicted on his counseled admission in open court that he committed the crime charged against him.... Whether or not the advice the defendant received in the pre-Jackson era would have been different had Jackson then been the law has no bearing on the accuracy of the defendant’s admission that he committed the crime.
McMann v. Richardson at 773, 90 S.Ct. at 1450.
*1340In Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970), the defendant pleaded guilty under an indictment which subjected him to the death penalty under a federal statute. A portion of the federal statute was later held unconstitutional because the death penalty could only be imposed on the recommendation of the jury, thus making the possibility of the death penalty the price of a jury trial.3 Again, the Court refused to grant collateral relief to the defendant based on the change of law.
The fact that Brady did not anticipate United States v. Jackson, supra, does not impinge the truth or reliability of his plea. We find no requirement in the Constitution that a defendant must be permitted to disown his solemn admissions in open court that he committed the act with which he is charged simply because it later develops that the State would have had a weaker case than the defendant had thought or that the maximum penalty then assumed applicable has been held inapplicable in subsequent judicial decisions.
Brady v. United States at 757, 90 S.Ct. at 1473.
As in McMann and Brady, the fact that the relevant law later changed does not affect the voluntary and knowing character and substance of the plea of guilty. By pleading guilty, petitioner admitted the truth of the charges against him — he did not vouch for the strength of the prosecution’s case. A change in the law which affects the strength of the prosecution’s case is simply irrelevant to petitioner’s admission of factual guilt. See Erickson, The Finality of a Plea of Guilty, 48 Notre Dame Law. 835 (1973).
Accordingly, the retrospectivity issue in Part III of the court’s opinion need not be addressed. Even if we were to assume that People v. Thomas is to be given retrospective effect, the defendant waived any objection to illegally seized evidence by his plea of guilty. In my view, the court has failed to elaborate the correct basis for the result in this ease, and has decided the retrospectivity issue prematurely. I therefore concur in the result reached by the majority.
I am authorized to say that Justice RO-VIRA and Justice VOLLACK join in this concurrence.

. Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970); McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970); Parker v. North Carolina, 397 U.S. 790, 90 S.Ct. 1458, 25 L.Ed.2d 785 (1970).

. Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964).

. United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570, 88 S.Ct. 1209, 20 L.Ed.2d 138 (1968).