State v. JeffersonState v. Jefferson
We have consolidated the state‘s application for supervisory writs in each of defendants’ cases to consider a single question. Defendants claimed at their multiple offender hearings that they did not receive, or could not recall receiving, appropriate Boykin warnings in entering prior pleas of guilty. The challenged pleas came after the opinion in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) and before our decision in State ex rel. Jackson v. Henderson, 260 La. 90, 255 So.2d 85 (1976). The trial court thought that defendants’ disclaimers, and the absence in
Defendant Floyd Jefferson was charged in a two-count bill of information with simple burglary,
Defendant James Bell was charged by bill of information with theft in the amount of nine hundred ($900.00) dollars,
The trial court‘s rulings focused exclusively on the 1970 convictions. In addition to the state‘s independent proofs at the hearings, defendants took the stand and freely admitted their prior pleas in 1970. They also conceded they had been represented by counsel, a fact clearly established by certified minute entries of the pleas in each case submitted by the state. Defendant Bell, however, denied that either the trial court or counsel explained to him the consequences of his pleas. Less certain, Jefferson could recall only that the trial judge “asked me some questions . . . before he gave me the time . . . but what it was, I don‘t know.” Both defendants testified that their pleas were otherwise voluntary.
The trial court emphasized in each case that the state had failed to produce a contemporaneous record indicating compliance with Boykin. For that lack, defendant‘s testimony stood unopposed and, in the court‘s view, appeared sufficient to meet “the burden placed on defendant in these matters . . .” The trial court accordingly placed the 1970 convictions beyond reach of the state. In the case of Bell, the ruling meant dismissal of the bill altogether, as the 1968 conviction appeared too remote for purposes of
The trial court‘s rulings were erroneous. With the decisions in State v. Holden, 375 So.2d 1372 (La.1979) and State v. Bolton, 379 So.2d 722 (La.1980), this Court has now firmly established that for all pleas taken in Louisiana prior to December 8, 1971, the date of finality of State ex rel. Jackson v. Henderson, “the state is required only to prove the conviction by a plea of guilty with representation by counsel.” State v. Holden, 375 So.2d at 1376. Defendant thereafter “has the burden of proving that he did not waive his constitutional rights in making the plea, if the plea was taken subsequent to Boykin‘s requirements in this regard.”
In this case, the certified copies of the minute entries in each case, we well as defendant‘s testimony from the stand, established unequivocally that defendants were represented by counsel when they entered their pleas in 1970. The pleas came after the decision in Boykin (1969) and before the opinion in Jackson, supra. Holden thereafter shifted the burden of voluntariness to the defense, a fact acknowledged by the trial court. As set forth above, the trial court ultimately concluded that defendant‘s testimony alone met that burden. Holden
In the present cases, counsel failed to support defendant‘s testimony with a transcript of the prior pleas indicating substantial Boykin defects.* On this record under Holden, the defendant‘s have therefore not made out their claims, at least in the present context. Accordingly, we reverse the ruling of the trial court, vacate the sentences imposed, and remand these cases for resentencing in accord with the views expressed herein.
REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.
DIXON, C. J., dissents.