Kryger v. Turner

479 P.2d 477, 25 Utah 2d 214, 1971 Utah LEXIS 584
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 12, 1971
DocketNo. 12073
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 479 P.2d 477 (Kryger v. Turner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kryger v. Turner, 479 P.2d 477, 25 Utah 2d 214, 1971 Utah LEXIS 584 (Utah 1971).

Opinion

CALLISTER, Chief Justice:

Plaintiffs appeal from a denial of their petition for a writ of habeas corpus. They assert that their pleas of guilty in June of 1968 to the crime of robbery were not their voluntary and intelligent acts but were induced by illegally obtained evidence.

Plaintiffs contend that the State, during the investigation of the crime, acted in the following illegal manner:

1. The State extracted an illegal confession from Kryger; he testified that at the time of his arrest, he was interrogated without being warned of his constitutional rights and that he confessed after being threatened that if he didn’t, he would serve time, “a lot of time.”

2. The State conducted an illegal lineup ; Kryger testified that he was stopped in his automobile, shortly after the commission of the crime, and the police had him stand on the curb, while another vehicle circled past him. The police then advised him that he had been identified as the robber, and he was taken to the police station. He contends that this procedure was illegal because he did not have an attorney present, and he was not informed that he was entitled to an attorney while he was being held for identification on the curb.

3.The State conducted an illegal search; plaintiffs concluded that the knife, apparently used in the robbery, was recovered from their apartment by means of an unlawful search and seizure. Kryger testified that he confessed that he and Stewart committed the robbery and that the weapon used in perpetrating the crime, a knife, was hidden in the closet of their apartment. Kryger stated that he had never consented to a search of the apartment nor had he been shown a search warrant. Stewart testified that the police came to the apartment and arrested him and searched the apartment, but they didn’t find the knife and they departed, taking him to the police station. Stewart denies that he consented to the search, and he was not shown a warrant. The knife was introduced into evidence at the preliminary hearing; so plaintiffs concluded the knife was procured by an unlawful search and seizure, since there was no consent, no warrant, and the police had not seized it as an incident to Stewart’s arrest.

Plaintiffs vigorously urge that they did not realize that the foregoing evidence was procured by means that proscribe constitutional safeguards; and, therefore, they • pleaded guilty. They assert that under these circumstances, their plea was not knowingly and voluntarily made, and their conviction cannot be sustained.

[216]*216At the time plaintiffs pleaded guilty, defense counsel interrogated them; they responded that no one, including anyone in defense counsel’s office, the prosecution, or the police, had given any promise or done anything to coerce their plea of guilty and that they were entering their plea of guilty solely because they were guilty of the crime as charged. Immediately thereafter, they both pleaded guilty.

At the hearing on the instant petition, Stewart testified that he first met defense counsel at a lineup in which Stewart participated. The same counsél represented them at the preliminary hearing, where the knife was introduced into evidence, and the victim, a Mr. Finch, identified Kryger. Stewart testified that he believed Kryger’s confession was offered as evidence. Stewart stated that counsel advised him that the case didn’t look good, the prosecution had the weapon, a confession, and an identification at a lineup attended by an attorney. Stewart testified that the evidence introduced at the preliminary hearing influenced him to plead guilty.

Plaintiff Kryger testified:

Q. Would you tell the Court whether this evidence, the identification, the presence of the knife, the other things, the statement that you made, induced to any extent your plea?
A. No sir.
Q. What was your reason for pleading?
A. We just thought we’d just get out there and do our time because they said it would be until about December and we didn’t want to wait around in the County jail for about eight months.
Q. Did you believe there was no other alternative than to plead guilty in view of this evidence?
A. No, sir.

Kryger further admitted that he had indicated to his defense counsel that he had been identified, that the police had the weapon, and that he had discussed the charges against him with the interrogating officer, including the alleged threat to confess or he’d get more time. Kryger claimed that defense counsel had advised him that the confession was validly obtained. Both plaintiffs testified that counsel failed to ask them if the police had advised them of their constitutional rights.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ petition. Both plaintiffs and defendant cite McMann v. Richardson1 to support their respective positions; the court therein determined whether and to what extent an otherwise valid guilty plea may be im[217]*217peached in collateral proceedings by assertions or proof that the plea was motivated by a prior coerced confession.

The court initially observed:

A conviction after a plea of guilty normally rests on the defendant’s own admission in open court that he committed the acts with which he is charged. [Citations omitted] That admission may not be compelled, and since the plea is also a waiver of trial — and unless the applicable law otherwise provides, a waiver of the right to contest the admissibility of any evidence the State might have offered against the defendant — it must be an intelligent act “done with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences. ” Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, at 748, 90 S.Ct. 1463, at 1469, 25 L.Ed.2d at 747.2

The court stated that the validity of a plea is determined by whether the plea was a voluntary and intelligent act of the defendant.3 The court observed that the defendant who pleads guilty is in a different posture than one who is convicted after a trial in which the coerced confession is introduced. In the former situation, he is convicted on his counseled admission in open court that he committed the crime charged against him. The prior confession is not the basis for the judgment, has never been offered in evidence at a trial, and may never be offered in evidence. The court concluded that a defendant is bound by his plea and his conviction unless he can allege and prove serious derelictions on the part of counsel sufficient to show that his plea was not, after all, a knowing and intelligent act.4

Plaintiffs contend that their unchallenged assertions are sufficient to invoke the exception cited in McMann, namely, that their counsel’s advice was not within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in a criminal case.

In McMann, the court proffered the following significant comments:

* * * His [defendant’s] later petition for collateral relief asserting that a coerced

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Related

State v. Classon
935 P.2d 524 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1997)
State v. Banks
541 P.2d 808 (Utah Supreme Court, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
479 P.2d 477, 25 Utah 2d 214, 1971 Utah LEXIS 584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kryger-v-turner-utah-1971.