Cantu v. State

660 So. 2d 1026, 1994 WL 129749
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedApril 16, 1994
Docket1920426
StatusPublished
Cited by103 cases

This text of 660 So. 2d 1026 (Cantu v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cantu v. State, 660 So. 2d 1026, 1994 WL 129749 (Ala. 1994).

Opinions

MADDOX, Justice

(concurring in part; dissenting in part)

I am pleased with the decision of the Court in this case insofar as it holds that a trial court’s failure to advise a defendant correctly about the maximum and minimum punishment a defendant can receive is not a jurisdictional defect, because the law was very confusing on this point. I am greatly disturbed about the holding that a defendant, represented by1 counsel, who pleads guilty and is sentenced within the range allowed by law, and who does not object to the stated range of punishment or ask the trial court to allow a withdrawal of the plea of guilty, or does not appeal from the judgment of conviction entered on the plea of guilty, may still raise the issue of the voluntariness of the [1030]*1030plea of guilty in a post-conviction proceeding.4

The majority states the question presented as follows:

“If the trial judge fails to strictly comply with the procedural requirements for the entry of a guilty plea, must the defendant seek to withdraw the plea of guilty and give the trial judge an opportunity to pass on any claimed error in the process and thereby establish in the record the error in question in the event of an appeal, or can the defendant raise the question in a timely filed post-conviction proceeding?”

660 So.2d at 1026. (Emphasis added.) The majority concludes:

“We hold that even though a defendant could file a motion under the provisions of Rule 14 [Ala.R.Crim.P.] to withdraw a plea of guilty and could appeal a trial court’s ruling on that motion, the defendant would not be precluded from raising, in a timely filed post-conviction proceeding, the question of the voluntariness of the guilty plea.”

660 So.2d at 1029. The Court bases this holding, as I understand it, primarily upon what it believes the Supreme Court of the United States required by its decision in a case from Alabama, Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). I recognize that Boykin imposed certain requirements on the State, in order to ensure that a defendant’s plea of guilty is voluntarily entered, but Boykin was a capital case, and even in Boykin, the constitutional question of the voluntariness of the defe-dant’s plea, which was addressed by the Supreme Court of the United States, was raised for the defendant by three members of this Court, who dissented in that case. See, Boykin v. State, 281 Ala. 659, 663, 207 So.2d 412, 415 (1968). The point is that the issue of the voluntariness of Boykin’s plea was raised by three members of this Court, and the issue was then addressed by the Supreme Court of the United States, resulting in the now famous Boykin decision. In Boykin, the question whether the constitutional question was properly raised was discussed by the Supreme Court of the United States, and there was sharp disagreement on the Court as to the preclusion issue. See Boykin, 395 U.S. at 240, 89 S.Ct. at 1711, where the majority stated that “[tjrial strategy may make a plea of guilty seem the desirable course.” But then the majority noted that the law of Alabama requires a jury to make a finding of guilty in a capital case and noted that “four of the seven justices [of the Alabama Supreme Court] discussed the constitutionality of the process by which the trial judge had accepted petitioner’s guilty plea.”5 It seems clear to me that members of the Supreme Court of Alabama first raised the issue of the voluntariness of Boykin’s plea, under the “plain error” rule, which meant the issue was preserved sufficiently for review by the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal, and it further seems clear to me that there is the suggestion, in Boykin, that the constitutional question may not have been reached by the Supreme Court of the United States had members of this Court not raised and addressed it, because Boykin himself did not preserve it, but it was preserved for him by “four of the seven justices” of this Court.

In Boykin, Justices Harlan and Black were of the opinion that the constitutional question had not been properly raised. In his dissent, Justice Harlan wrote, “The Court today holds that petitioner Boykin was denied due process of law, and that his robbery conviction must be reversed outright, solely be[1031]*1031cause ‘the record [is] inadequate to show that petitioner ... intelligently and knowingly pleaded guilty,’ ” and “thus in effect fastens upon the States, as a matter of federal constitutional law, the rigid prophylactic requirements of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure,” and “does so in circumstances where the Court itself has only very recently held application of Rule 11 to be unnecessary in the federal courts. See Halliday v. United States, 394 U.S. 831, 89 S.Ct. 1498, 23 L.Ed.2d 16 (1969).” 395 U.S. at 244-45, 89 S.Ct. at 1713-14. Justice Harlan then said: “Moreover, the Court does all this at the behest of a petitioner who has never at any time alleged that his guilty plea was involuntary or made without knowledge of the consequences. I cannot possibly subscribe to so bizarre a result.” 395 U.S. at 245, 89 S.Ct. at 1713.

I do not believe Boykin stands for the proposition that a defendant who has been afforded counsel, who decides to plead guilty, and who is sentenced within the limits allowed by law, should be able to raise, in a post-conviction proceeding, the question of the plea’s voluntariness, especially when the defendant could have raised the issue 1) by objecting, when he entered the plea; 2) by asking the trial judge to allow a withdrawal of the plea of guilty, and then appealing from the conviction.

The term “due process” discussed in Boy-kin means “fundamental fairness.” Every defendant is guaranteed this “fundamental fairness,” but the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure provide “due process,” because a defendant is entitled to counsel whether or not the defendant can afford counsel, and the defendant can ask the trial judge to withdraw a plea of guilty, and the defendant can appeal from a judgment based on a plea of guilty. Our Rules of Criminal Procedure governing the entry of pleas of guilty do provide certain procedural requirements that must be followed, but our Rules also provide that certain issues that are not properly raised are precluded, as they should be.6

Rule 1.2, Ala.R.Crim.P., states, “These rules are intended to provide for the just and speedy determination of every criminal proceeding. They shall be construed to secure simplicity in procedure, fairness in administration, and the elimination of unnecessary delay and expense, and to protect the rights of the individual while preserving the public welfare.”

Other courts, construing similar rules of procedure for reviewing the voluntariness of a guilty plea, have reached a result similar to the one that I believe should apply here. A Florida court has written:

“ ‘[T]he purposes of requiring a motion to withdraw the guilty plea as a prerequisite to an appeal are obvious.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
660 So. 2d 1026, 1994 WL 129749, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cantu-v-state-ala-1994.