Forrester v. State

784 S.W.2d 1, 1989 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 794
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedNovember 17, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 784 S.W.2d 1 (Forrester v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forrester v. State, 784 S.W.2d 1, 1989 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 794 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

BYERS, Judge.

This is another in the multitude of post-conviction cases which raises the issue of what rights a trial court must advise an accused before accepting a guilty plea.

An accused’s rights are found within the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, when the case is within this state.

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, among other things:

... nor shall he be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

Rights of the accused.—-In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution of Tennessee provides:

Right of the accused in criminal prosecutions.—That in all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath the right to be heard by himself and his counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof, to meet the witnesses face to face, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and in prosecutions by indictment or presentment, a speedy public trial, by an impartial jury of the County in which the crime shall have been committed, and shall not [2]*2be compelled to give evidence against himself.

In this case the appellant, on April 2, 1986, in Roane County, entered a plea of guilty to petit larceny, for which he was sentenced to serve one year, which was ordered to run consecutively to a sentence of three years, which had been imposed upon him in Morgan County. On August 14, 1988, the appellant entered a plea of guilty, in Roane County, to attempting to commit a felony, for which he was sentenced to serve three years as a Range II persistent offender. Additionally, the appellant entered a plea of guilty to a charge of malicious mischief for which he was sentenced to serve six months.

The cases under attack in this petition are the petit larceny conviction and the conviction for attempting to commit a felony.

The appellant alleged he did not knowingly, understandingly, and voluntarily enter pleas of guilty because the trial court did not advise him of:

(1) The right against self-incrimination.
(2) The maximum and minimum sentence that appellant could receive.
(3) The right to a jury trial.
(4) That appellant’s guilty plea could later be used against him at a subsequent trial to enhance his punishment.
(5) The right to confront his accusers.
(6) The right to obtain witnesses in his behalf.

The appellant avers he would not have entered pleas of guilty had he been made aware of these matters.

The record shows the trial judge addressed the appellant at the time of the guilty pleas and advised him of the following constitutional rights:

(1) The right to trial by jury.
(2) The right to confront witnesses who would testify against him.
(3) The right against being compelled to give evidence against himself.

It appears to us that the resolution to this case is controlled by Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969); State v. Mackey, 553 S.W.2d 337 (Tenn.1977); Rounsaville v. Evatt, 733 S.W.2d 506 (Tenn.1987); State v. McClintock, 732 S.W.2d 268 (Tenn.1987); State v. Newsome, 778 S.W.2d 34 (Tenn.1989); Housler v. State, 749 S.W.2d 758 (Tenn.Cr.App.1988); perhaps, State v. Samuel Lewis Watson, 1989 WL 3183 (Court of Criminal Appeals, Knoxville, Jan. 19, 1989); Chapter 30 of T.C.A., the Post-Conviction Procedure Act; and more particularly, T.C.A. § 40-30-105, which is as follows:

Relief under this chapter shall be granted when the conviction or sentence is void or voidable because of the abridgement in any way of any right guaranteed by the constitution of this state or the Constitution of the United States, including a right that was not recognized as existing at the time of the trial if either constitution requires retrospective application of that right.

By reason of this statute, the appellant’s complaint of the failure of the trial judge to advise him of the maximum and minimum sentence for the offenses and the failure to advise him the conviction could be used in a subsequent trial cannot be .litigated in a post-conviction proceeding because they are not grounded in any constitutional right, Federal or State. See Housler.

This leaves only the allegation of the failure of the trial judge to advise the appellant of the following rights:

(1) The right against self-incrimination.
(2) The right to trial by jury.
(3) The right to confront the witnesses who would testify against him.
(4) The right to compulsory process to obtain witnesses in his favor.

As heretofore set out, the record clearly shows the trial judge advised the appellant on numbers (1), (2), and (3) above enumerated. It is equally clear the trial judge did not advise the appellant, at the time of the guilty pleas, of the right to compulsory process for witnesses favorable to him. The trial judge held, erroneously, this was not a constitutional right and thus not cognizable in a post-conviction procedure.

[3]*3The question before us now becomes, whether this failure entitles the appellant to have these convictions set aside.

In Boykin, the United States Supreme Court held the record must show a guilty plea is knowingly and voluntarily entered, because such plea is a conviction and the attendant constitutional rights an accused has in a criminal prosecution are thereby waived. The Court held a waiver of these rights must be shown by the record or there must be an allegation and proof that the plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered after a waiver of the constitutional rights. In Boykin, the Court held the constitutional right against self-incrimination, the right to trial by jury, and the right to confront one’s accusers are implicated in a guilty plea.

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Related

Kimbrell v. State
2016 Ark. App. 17 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
784 S.W.2d 1, 1989 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 794, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forrester-v-state-tenncrimapp-1989.