Court Opinion

ID: 9639935
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:52:20.229397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:23.270877
License: Public Domain

OSBORNE, Judge
(dissenting).
The appellant who had three previous felony convictions was indicted in the Bell Circuit Court for detaining a female against her will and also under the Habitual Criminal Act. On January 6, 1964, the court directed that he be brought from the Kentucky State Prison to that county for the purpose of arraignment and other proceedings in connection with the trial. He was so produced before the court on January 27, 1964, and was represented by the Honorable Paris Swinford. He and his attorney appeared before the court, waived arraignment, and entered a plea of guilty to the charge of detaining a female. The other charge under the Habitual Criminal Act was apparently waived by the Commonwealth. The records of the court show that the appellant waived trial by jury; that he was found guilty arid his punishment fixed at confinement for four years, which was to run consecutively with *325the other sentences. On August 12, 1966, the appellant filed this motion under RCr 11.42 in which he sets out several grounds for relief, among which are inadequate time to prepare for trial, lack of effective counsel, collusion between court and counsel to cause him to plead guilty; that the charges against him were false and fraudulent; that he asked for a continuance and was overruled. These are the usual charges contained in the flood of groundless applications coming out of our penitentiaries. On August 19, 1966, the Bell Circuit Court overruled appellants motion to vacate the judgment, from this order he prosecutes this appeal. I am of the opinion that the trial court properly overruled the application. The records of the court are in direct conflict with the statements of his affidavit and to give any credence to the affidavit one must first presume that the records of the court are false and fraudulent; that the trial Judge is completely devoid of any of the decent and honorable attributes normally attributed to a judicial official and that the attorney violated all of the rules of his code of ethics and forced an innocent man to plead guilty in a court of law, which, if true, could require his disbarment. These charges are so flagrantly void of any semblance of truth that to give them the slightest judicial recognition is to violate all of the principles commonly recognized in our system of jurisprudence. In Commonwealth v. Watkins, Ky., 398 S.W.2d 698, this court stated, “The effect of a plea of guilty is to waive all defenses other than that the indictment charges no offense and to authorize the imposition of the penalty prescribed by law.”
As to his charges that the allegations of the indictment were faked and that he is innocent of the offenses, we met this in King v. Commonwealth, Ky., 387 S.W.2d 582. He then claims that he asked for a jury trial and a continuance and that this was denied. This also has been faced by this court in Maye v. Commonwealth, Ky., 386 S.W.2d 731.
That language in the majority opinion bemoaning the fact that the defendant was unprepared for trial is somewhat disturbing. I would like to point out that any failure of preparedness upon his part is due to the fact that he commits one crime so closely upon the heels of the other that he does not have time to prepare his defenses. This certainly can not be the fault of the Commonwealth.
As to another remark in the opinion that we should safe-guard the rights of the defendant who is “burdened” by the stamp of previous convictions because it is they who are most likely to be “grudgingly recognized and cavalierly treated.”
I should like to point out that those who are burdened by the stamp of previous convictions bring their own burdens upon their shoulders and certainly this should not make them nearer and dearer to the hearts of this court nor should we show any greater concern for their likes than for those who are not so burdened.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent..