Riggers v. State

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Riggers v. State

169 N.W.2d 58, 284 Minn. 543, 1969 Minn. LEXIS 1091

CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota

DecidedJune 27, 1969

Docket41659

StatusPublished

Cited by6 cases

This text of 169 N.W.2d 58 (Riggers v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Riggers v. State, 169 N.W.2d 58, 284 Minn. 543, 1969 Minn. LEXIS 1091 (Mich. 1969).

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Opinion

Per Curiam.

Appeal from orders of the district court granting a petition for post-convict.ion relief and thereby vacating a judgment, of conviction of murder in the first degree, and granting a new trial. The order is appeal-able. Minn. St. 590.06.

We have frequently recognized the authority of the district court to vacate a plea of guilty in order to correct a manifest, injustice. The decisions are collected in Chapman v. State, 282 Minn. 13, 162 N. W. (2d) 698.

Even though defendant caused the death of John Keninger in Norman County on May 2, 1936, the doubt expressed by the judge presiding at. the postconviction proceedings as to whether the killing was premeditated and intentional has support in the record of those proceedings. His determination that defendant’s plea of guilty to murder in the first degree was ill-advised and involuntary was reasonable in light of the evidence presented concerning his treatment upon apprehension; the circumstances under which his confession was secured; and the advice given him to plead guilty to a charge of a premeditated and intentional murder because of the confession, notwithstanding the apparent weakness of the state’s case with respect to these essential *544 elements of murder in the first degree. The 33 years’ imprisonment already served by defendant would presumably satisfy any sentence which might have been imposed had he pleaded guilty to any lesser degree of the crime charged.

Affirmed

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Per Curiam.

Appeal from orders of the district court granting a petition for post-convict.ion relief and thereby vacating a judgment, of conviction of murder in the first degree, and granting a new trial. The order is appeal-able. Minn. St. 590.06.

We have frequently recognized the authority of the district court to vacate a plea of guilty in order to correct a manifest, injustice. The decisions are collected in Chapman v. State, 282 Minn. 13, 162 N. W. (2d) 698.

Even though defendant caused the death of John Keninger in Norman County on May 2, 1936, the doubt expressed by the judge presiding at. the postconviction proceedings as to whether the killing was premeditated and intentional has support in the record of those proceedings. His determination that defendant’s plea of guilty to murder in the first degree was ill-advised and involuntary was reasonable in light of the evidence presented concerning his treatment upon apprehension; the circumstances under which his confession was secured; and the advice given him to plead guilty to a charge of a premeditated and intentional murder because of the confession, notwithstanding the apparent weakness of the state’s case with respect to these essential *544 elements of murder in the first degree. The 33 years’ imprisonment already served by defendant would presumably satisfy any sentence which might have been imposed had he pleaded guilty to any lesser degree of the crime charged.

Affirmed

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Bluebook (online)

169 N.W.2d 58, 284 Minn. 543, 1969 Minn. LEXIS 1091, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/riggers-v-state-minn-1969.

Opinion

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