Lockard v. State

451 P.2d 1014, 92 Idaho 813, 1969 Ida. LEXIS 233
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 21, 1969
Docket10258
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 451 P.2d 1014 (Lockard v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lockard v. State, 451 P.2d 1014, 92 Idaho 813, 1969 Ida. LEXIS 233 (Idaho 1969).

Opinion

SPEAR, Justice.

At the outset we note that this cause was originally improperly titled. The application for post-conviction relief was. instituted by Jess P. Lockard “Prison Number 12122” as “movant,” contrary to I.C. § R7-101; Idaho Supreme Court R. 5. Consequently, the title of this cause has. been reformed. Epperson v. Howell, 28 Idaho 338, 341, 154 P. 621 (1916); Shaw v. McDougall, 56 Idaho 697, 699, 58 P.2d 463 (1936).

On October 11, 1966, while serving a 90-day sentence for a misdemeanor, Jess PLockard (appellant) escaped from the Clearwater County Jail. While effecting' his escape, Lockard pushed one William. Blevins, a custodian, in such a fashion that Blevins fell back, hitting his head and causing a wound of minor proportions.

Lockard fled to the State of Wisconsin.. He was returned to Idaho in the custody of Ralph E. Haley, prosecutor, and Leroy Alt-miller, Sheriff of Clearwater County-During the return trip there was some conversation between the three individuals: relevant to the pending escape charge and: some further discussion in regard to burglary charges which Haley contemplated bringing against appellant. Both the sub *815 stance and implications to be drawn from these conversations are in dispute.

On November 14, 1966, appellant was charged with two felonies, escape and receiving stolen property. An attorney was appointed to represent appellant at his preliminary hearing, but the hearing was waived.

On November 15, 1966, appellant appeared in District Court. At that time he waived his right to be represented by counsel and pleaded guilty to both charges. He likewise waived his right to a presentence investigation. The trial court, believing the waiver and pleas to be intelligently made and uncoerced, immediately passed sentence of five years on each charge, the sentences to run consecutively, for a total of ten years.

In asserting the basic assignment of error that the trial court erred in denying post-conviction relief, appellant alleges several errors in both the original proceedings and the subsequent post-conviction hearing. We shall deal with these issues in order.

I.

Appellant first alleges that there was error in allowing the same judge to preside over both the original trial and the subsequent post-conviction proceedings.

This allegation of error is raised for the first time on appeal. As such, this court will not consider it. State v. West, 92 Idaho 728, 449 P.2d 474 (1969); City of Lewiston v. Frary, 91 Idaho 322, 420 P.2d 805 (1966). Furthermore, the post-conviction act requires that the hearing be had before the same court in which conviction took place. I.C. § 19-4907. If appellant felt he could not obtain a fair hearing before the same judge, his remedy was to disqualify the judge pursuant to I.C. § 1-1801(4).

II.

Appellant next contends that the pleas of guilty to both the escape charge and the receiving stolen property charge were coerced by the prosecuting attorney.

This is a conclusory statement. The real issues are: (1) What type of “coercive” circumstances will render a plea of guilty void, and (2) Did such circumstances exist here?

Idaho has long adhered to the principle that a plea of guilty must be made freely, voluntarily and with an understanding of the consequences attendant upon such a plea, i. e., State v. Peterson, 42 Idaho 785, 248 P. 12 (1926); State v. Arnold, 39 Idaho 589, 229 P. 748 (1924). A plea of guilty is deemed coerced only where it is improperly induced by ignorance, fear or fraud. One test of whether or not there has been improper coercion depends on whether an innocent person would have pleaded guilty under the same circumstances. Pennington v. Smith, 35 Wash.2d 267, 212 P.2d 811 (1949).

The implication of appellant’s assignment of error is that his plea of guilty was coerced by the prosecutor’s promise to forego charging appellant with the commission of a burglary if he would plead guilty to receiving stolen goods. However, it is well established that a plea of guilty obtained under such circumstances is not per se coercive. Martin v. United States, 256 F.2d 345 (5th Cir. 1955); Cortez v. United States, 337 F.2d 699 (9th Cir. 1964); Gilmore v. People of State of California, 364 F.2d 916 (9th Cir. 1966); Application of Buccheri, 6 Ariz.App. 196, 431 P.2d 91 (1967); Commonwealth ex rel. Bostic v. Cavell, 424 Pa. 573, 227 A.2d 662 (1967); Brown v. Beto, 377 F.2d 950 (5th cir. 1967).

Furthermore, in post-conviction proceedings, the petitioner has the burden of proving the allegations which he contends entitle him to relief under the Act by a preponderance of the evidence. Tramel v. State, 92 Idaho 643, 448 P.2d 649, 652 (1968). Petitioner’s burden here was to prove coercion and he has failed. The evidence does not support a contention that “plea-bargaining” was engaged in. The *816 prosecutor was called to the stand in the post-conviction proceedings and described his conversations with the appellant as follows:

“Q Was there any discussion between yourself and Mr. Lockard during this trip [back from Wisconsin] pertaining to any of these charges [ ?]
“A Yes, Mr. Lockard had been telling the sheriff and I, in a visiting manner of where he had been and what all he had been doing since he left here, then he made the statement that the only reason he escaped he got to thinking that if we tried and convicted him of the 2 burglaries and the statutory rape, and there was one or two burglaries in Lewiston that they were anticipating trying him on, and if he got tried for those — and then he told us he was, I believe, on probation out of California somewhere — he would be in trouble with the California law, that he would be in the penitentiary for more than the rest of his life, he felt he had nothing left to— no hope left, and so that he pulled the escape. He told me he wasn’t guilty of those burglaries, and he wasn’t going to get convicted of them. I advised him again, as I had before, that I was sure we had sufficient evidence to convict him. He again asserted he wasn’t guilty, did not commit them, that he knew who did, that the person who did it, as I recall, stayed with him a day or 2 beforehand and went out and pulled those burglaries and left the things with him and gone on, that he knew that this — the items were stolen when the man brought them to him.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
451 P.2d 1014, 92 Idaho 813, 1969 Ida. LEXIS 233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lockard-v-state-idaho-1969.