Love v. State

306 N.E.2d 142, 159 Ind. App. 270, 1974 Ind. App. LEXIS 1118
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 31, 1974
Docket572A221
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 306 N.E.2d 142 (Love v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Love v. State, 306 N.E.2d 142, 159 Ind. App. 270, 1974 Ind. App. LEXIS 1118 (Ind. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

White, J.

This is the fourth opinion to be handed down in two appeals from a judgment denying petitioner-appellant Love’s petition for post conviction relief from a determinate sentence of ten years for robbery.

The first appeal was to the Supreme Court of Indiana. At that time it was the only appellate court in the State with jurisdiction of appeals in criminal cases and in post conviction relief proceedings. That appeal was premised on the overruling of a motion to correct errors which contended (as the sole error) that the trial court had erred in making no finding on the issue raised by the following allegation in the petition for post conviction relief:

“This petitioner was grossly denied his constitutional rights when Indianapolis police held him 24 hours without advising him of his rights and without counsel of an attorney.”
The Supreme Court remanded saying:
“Appellant claimed in his petition for post-conviction relief that he was denied his constitutional rights when the Indianapolis police held him twenty-four (24) hours without advising him of his rights and without the counsel of an attorney. The court’s specific findings of fact on this issue, if indeed there were any, were as follows:
“‘3(C) There was no illegality in the guilty plea proceedings or in the evidence adduced at said proceedings.’
* * *
“Clearly the court was required to make specific findings in this case, but we are able to discern no specific findings concerning what happened during appellant’s first twenty-four (24) hours after arrest. We therefore remand this case to the court below to make specific findings of fact and conclusions of law on the issue of whether appellant’s constitutional rights were violated during the first twenty- *272 four (24) hours of his incarceration, namely whether he was properly advised of his rights per Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 438, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, and whether he was informed of his right to counsel during the line-up per United States v. Wade (1967), 388 U.S. 218, 87 S. Ct. 1926, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1149.” (257 Ind. 57, 272 N.E.2d 456, 457, 458.)

On petition for rehearing (which was denied), the Supreme Court agreed that Miranda and Wade are not directly material but could

“not agree with petitioner that the trial court’s findings sufficiently answer . . . [‘the ultimate fact to be ascertained . . . whether the plea of guilty was knowingly and voluntarily given’]. We thus still maintain that the cause must be remanded to make specific findings of fact and conclusions of law on the issue of whether the plea of guilty was voluntarily, knowingly, and freely given.” (274 N.E.2d 238, 239.) (Original emphasis.)

The trial court thereafter filed what it denominated “Supplemental Specific Findings of Fact” which read:

“In accordance with the mandate of the Supreme Court of Indiana in the certified opinion dated October 20, 1971, under No. 1070 S 249, this Court makes the following supplemental specific findings of fact:
“1. The defendant’s plea of guilty was voluntarily, knowingly, and freely given.
“2. The defendant was specifically and fully advised of his rights by this Court, before acceptance of his plea, as shown by the transcript on plea of guilty.
“3. The defendant did not plead guilty because of any threats or promises that had been made to him.
“4. That after consultation with his attorney and after being advised of his rights by the Court, the defendant pleaded guilty because he believed such plea to be in his own best interests.”

The appellant then filed a motion to correct errors in that supplemental finding, specifying the following errors:

“1. It was error to find, in rhetorical paragraph numbered ‘1.’ that ‘the defendant’s plea of guilty was voluntarily, knowingly and freely given,’ inasmuch as the record heretofore filed makes it clear that the defendant’s guilty *273 plea was tainted by events in the first twenty-four hours after his arrest when he was subjected to line-up in absence of counsel and also made statements to police in absence of waiver of his rights to counsel, as more specifically detailed in the attached Affidavit of Willie Harold Love, marked as Exhibit ‘A’.
“2. It was error to find that, as stated in rhetorical paragraph ‘3.’ of the said supplemental findings, ‘the defendant did not plead guilty because of any threats or promises that had been made to him,’ since, as shown by Exhibit ‘A’ and implications of the record heretofore made, the determination to plead guilty was a direct consequence of the defendant’s belief that his attorney and a detective had agreed on a sentence of either one [1] year on the farm or not less than one [1] nor more than ten [10] years, if petitioner cooperated with said detective by making statements admitting culpability in numerous offenses that the police were investigating, whereupon he incurred potential liability for multiple sentences of not less than ten [10] nor more than twenty-five [25] years, without any available defense.
“3. It was error to have entered said Supplemental Specific Findings of Fact without a determination whether there had been denials of rights under Miranda or Wade as factors which, under the circumstances of this case, were material to a determination that the plea of guilty was voluntarily, knowingly, and freely given, or to have avoided additional evidence on said issues in view of the paucity of the record, and the allegations of the Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, together with a previous Motion to Correct Errors, that there had been no advice of rights during the first twenty-four hours in custody when the petitioner’s fate was sealed, particularly in view of the showing that he had had little benefit from his retention of counsel in such period, was following his attorney’s advice given without more adequate consultation than a telephone call in police headquarters and a brief period in the court-room.”

When that motion was overruled the appellant took a second appeal. By that time the new judicial article (Art. 7, Constitution of Indiana) had become effective, as well as Appellate Rules 4(A) and 4(B) adopted pursuant thereto (Art. 7, §§ 4 and 6) whereby appellate jurisdiction was then in the Court of Appeals. We thus received the second appeal *274 with some of the law of the case already established by the two Supreme Court opinions.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Liffick v. State
367 N.E.2d 34 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1977)
Daniels v. State
312 N.E.2d 890 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
306 N.E.2d 142, 159 Ind. App. 270, 1974 Ind. App. LEXIS 1118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/love-v-state-indctapp-1974.