Dykes v. State

372 S.W.2d 184, 213 Tenn. 40, 17 McCanless 40, 1963 Tenn. LEXIS 465
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 6, 1963
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 372 S.W.2d 184 (Dykes v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dykes v. State, 372 S.W.2d 184, 213 Tenn. 40, 17 McCanless 40, 1963 Tenn. LEXIS 465 (Tenn. 1963).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Holmes

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The plaintiff in error, who hereinafter will be referred to as defendant, was indicted and convicted of the offense of possessing beer for the purpose of sale and sentenced to serve six months in the County Jail and pay a fine of $100.00. Following the overruling of his motion for a new trial, the defendant has duly perfected his appeal.

The bill of exceptions is in narrative form. It shows that on May 15, 1962 two sheriff’s deputies procured a search warrant for the residence of the defendant and searched same. These officers found eleven cases and ten cans of beer on the premises. Four cases and the cans were in the refrigerator and the remainder in the automobile on the premises. There were two men present at the time of the search who were drinking beer. One of the officers testified that he had known the defendant for several years and that, to the best of his knowledge, the defendant was not employed. Neither officer saw anyone buy or sell any beer at this place.

The record further discloses that in the absence of the jury during the course of the trial of the ease, the Trial Judge “said ‘that the notations on his docket entered at the last term of Court reflected that the defendant stated that he would enter a plea of guilty’ at this term of [42]*42Court and upon Ms making that statement the case was continued — that where defendants make known to the Court that they would plead guilty it was not as difficult to get a case continued under those conditions. The defense counsel stated that the statement was made to the Court, however, he could not plead guilty or be bound by a plea of guilty if his client wished to plead ‘not guilty’.”

Thereafter, over the objection of the defendant, in the presence of the jury, one of the deputies testified “that the defendant stated that he would enter a plea of guilty at this term of the Court.”

The technical record discloses that this cause was continued on the 13th day of March 1963. The minute entry shows, “This case is continued until the next term of this Court at which time defendant will plead guilty and the case is set for the first week in April. ’ ’

The case was tried on the 12th day of July 1963. The minute entry in the cause for that date, among other things, states the following:

“Came the Attorney G-eneral to prosecute for the State and the defendant being at the bar of. the Court in person and by attorney and being arraigned on an indictment charging Possessing Beer for Sale pleads not guilty thereto and requests that the jury fix all punishment in the event of guilty and for his trial puts himself upon the Country and the Attorney General on behalf of the State doth the like.”

Only three witnesses, the two deputies and a deputy clerk of the Court, testified. The defendant offered no evidence. As stated, the jury found the defendant guilty [43]*43and fixed the punishment at a fine of $100.00 and six months confinement in the County Jail. The jury, by its verdict, further recommended that the jail sentence be suspended.

The second assignment of error is:

“The Court erred over the objection of the defendant in permitting the introduction of evidence that the defendant had heretofore entered á plea of ‘guilty in this cause, which resulted in prejudicial error to the defendant. ’ ’

In support of this assignment of error, the defendant relies upon Brooks v. State, 187 Tenn. 67, 213 S.W.2d 7. In the Brooks case, on cross examination of the defendant, the District Attorney General asked him if he did not plead guilty to the charge for which he was then on trial when he was arraigned. The opinion in the Brooks case shows that, “State’s counsel stated to the Court that defendant had plead guilty on arraignment and that the plea had not been set aside.” The defendant in that case objected to the testimony and statement of State’s counsel in the presence of the jury and assigned as error the action of the Trial Court in not sustaining this objection. In sustaining the assignment of error, this Court stated:

“Here'the record shows the parties went to trial on a plea of Not Guilty and the verdict was returned after considering the evidence on this’ plea. The first and only intimation of a previous plea of guilty comes through a question to the defendant on cross examination. Under these circumstances it seems clear to us that the State, having thus proceeded, waived the fox-[44]*44mer plea of guilty and any formal order setting the same aside, and elected to try the defendant on his plea of Not Gfuilty. The converse of this proposition was held in Stewart v. State, 164 Tenn. 202, 46 S.W.2d 811. A fortiori the rule should apply to a defendant.
‘ ‘Having thus proceeded, it was erroneous for the State to ask the defendant on cross examination ‘if he did not plead guilty to the charge.’ ”

From the narrative bill of exceptions, the pertinent parts of which we have quoted above, it is not clear whether the agreement or offer to plead guilty when the case was previously set for trial was made by the defendant himself or through counsel. The State concedes that, if the defendant did not have counsel at the time the offer to plead guilty was made, then under the authority of White v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 59, 83 S.Ct. 1050, 1051, 10 L.Ed.2d 193, the case would have to be reversed. Under the view we take of the case, it is unimportant whether the defendant made the offer to plead guilty in his proper person or through counsel.

The opinion of this Court in Brooks v. State, supra, which was written by the present Chief Justice, clearly aligns Tennessee with those jurisdictions which hold that a withdrawn plea of guilty entered in the trial court may not be shown in evidence as a judicial confession at the trial of the indictment. In the Brooks case this Court quoted with approval excerpts from Kercheval v. United States, 274 U.S. 220, 47 S.Ct. 582, 71 L.Ed. 1009, which is the leading case holding evidence of a withdrawn guilty plea is not admissible against the defendant.

[45]*45In Basic Problems of Evidence by Morgan, at Page 286, it is stated that the trend seems to be to exclude such evidence. The cases dealing with the admissibility in evidence of a withdrawn plea of guilty are collected in an annotation in 86 A.L.R.2d 326. Here though, we do not have a withdrawn guilty plea, but an offer or agreement to plead guilty upon a continuance to the next term followed by a trial upon a not guilty plea.

Minnesota is among the states holding that evidence of such withdrawn plea may not be introduced upon the trial. The Supreme Court of that state, when presented with the question of whether or not evidence of an offer to plead guilty could be admitted in State v. McGunn, 208 Minn. 349, 294 N.W. 208, 209, stated:

“It is not a former plea of guilty with which we have to deal in the case at bar, but merely a proposal to plead guilty on the promise or recommendation of a suspended sentence.

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Bluebook (online)
372 S.W.2d 184, 213 Tenn. 40, 17 McCanless 40, 1963 Tenn. LEXIS 465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dykes-v-state-tenn-1963.