Arbuckle v. Turner

306 F. Supp. 825, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8827
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedNovember 25, 1969
DocketNos. C 18, 91 and 312-69
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 306 F. Supp. 825 (Arbuckle v. Turner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arbuckle v. Turner, 306 F. Supp. 825, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8827 (D. Utah 1969).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

CHRISTENSEN, District Judge.

Petitioners are confined in the Utah State Prison and seek habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (Supp. Pam.1967). State remedies have been exhausted.

These cases present the question of the extent to which Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) is retrospective in effect.

The necessity that a defendant’s guilty plea be voluntary and informed was a fundamental, constitutional principle prior to the Boykin decision. E. g., Machibroda v. United States, 368 U.S. 487, 493, 82 S.Ct. 510, 7 L.Ed.2d 473 (1962) (voluntariness); Kercheval v. United States, 274 U.S. 220, 223, 47 S.Ct. 582, 71 L.Ed. 1009 (1927) (full understanding of the consequences). Since the court in Boykin makes no attempt to redefine or extend the concept of “voluntary and intelligent”, the pronouncement must be read in light of existing case [827]*827law. Prior to the Boykin decision, due process was concerned with whether voluntariness and understanding existed, and not with the manner or means by which they came to exist. See Kotz v. United States, 353 F.2d 312, 314 (8th Cir. 1965).

In Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), the Supreme Court holds in a circumstance in which the defendant is represented by counsel that the trial court record under minimum due process standards must affirmatively disclose that a guilty plea is a voluntary and intelligent waiver of constitutional rights. This procedure had formerly existed in only a few state jurisdictions. See id. at 244 n. 6, 89 S.Ct. 1709. Utah statutes direct a trial judge to inform a defendant of the consequences of his plea only where the defendant is not represented by counsel. See Utah Code Ann. § 77-24-6 (1953). But see Brown v. Turner, 21 Utah 2d 96, 440 P.2d 968 (1968) (previous knowledge is relevant).

The requirement of an affirmative record in the Boykin form is a protective measure that is not retroactive. An affirmative record is designed not only to insure a defendant’s rights, but also to protect convictions upon a plea against collateral attack and the hapless searching of “muddled memories”. Although the natural proclivity in many circumstances of a trial judge to inquire regarding the appropriateness of a guilty plea would serve to make a record sufficient for Boykin standards, the result formerly was not necessitated nor followed in most cases in which a defendant was represented by an attorney. Boykin is not intended to cast a presumptive shadow on these convictions.

The Court has recently refused to apply retrospectively its interpretation of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 which would require personal interrogation in those respects set forth in McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969). Halliday v. United States, 394 U.S. 831, 89 S.Ct. 1498, 23 L.Ed.2d 16, aff’g 274 F.Supp. 737 (D.C.1969). Although in Halliday a factual basis for the plea as well as knowledge regarding the right to a jury trial and to the confrontation of the prosecution’s witnesses had been established on the record by presentation of much of the prosecution’s case before a change of plea to guilty, the trial court record was barren of personal interrogation or other affirmative showing that the plea was not coerced or that defendant knew the consequences of his plea. 274 F.Supp. at 737. In short, the trial court record in Halliday was in some respects insufficient under Boykin standards. So recent a ruling that a valid plea can be established independent of the trial court record in the context of Rule 11 cannot be ignored for our purposes; we may not assume that the Supreme Court wore blinders in a statutory context that prevented it from considering problems of a constitutional dimension. The reliance upon former procedure and the deleterious effect upon the administration of justice of retrospective application apply equally to both rulings to preclude retrospectivity.

The Third Circuit has held that a barren record with counsel present, including one in which a conclusionary representation is made by counsel that a defendant has been well advised, shifts the burden of proof to the state to show a voluntary and intelligent waiver by guilty plea. E. g., United States ex rel. Fink v. Rundle, 414 F.2d 542 (3d Cir. 1969); United States ex rel. McCloud v. Rundle, 402 F.2d 853, 857-858 (3d Cir. 1968). Although the scope of the Third Circuit decisions is not expressly limited, it is noteworthy that the decisions were rendered in a context in which adherence by the trial court to state law would have resulted in an affirmative record, and, thus, the imposition on the administration of justice in light of prior state procedure was minimal. In contrast, a Utah trial judge may assume in the usual circumstance that a defend[828]*828ant is well advised by his counsel. The rule in the Tenth Circuit has been that a representation by defendant’s attorney to the trial court that he has so advised the defendant coupled with the acquiescence of a defendant who appears to comprehend what is being done indicates that a valid plea has been entered. Williams v. Cox, 350 F.2d 847, 849 (10th Cir. 1965). See also, Lattin v. Cox, 355 F.2d 397, 400 (10th Cir. 1966); Miller v. Crouse, 346 F.2d 301, 306 (10th Cir. 1965). Although we do not reach the question of whether such record is sufficient after Boykin, the rule will continue to have validity for pre-Boykin cases.

In the first case, Arbuckle v. Turner, C 18-69, petitioner had pled “not guilty” at his first arraignment to the charge of forgery. At the time set for trial, petitioner changed his plea to guilty.

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Bluebook (online)
306 F. Supp. 825, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arbuckle-v-turner-utd-1969.