State v. Taylor

660 P.2d 690, 62 Or. App. 220, 1983 Ore. App. LEXIS 2422
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 16, 1983
DocketC 81-04-32051, CA A23717
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 660 P.2d 690 (State v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Taylor, 660 P.2d 690, 62 Or. App. 220, 1983 Ore. App. LEXIS 2422 (Or. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

*222 GILLETTE, P. J.

This is a state’s appeal from an order dismissing murder and felony murder charges against defendant on grounds of former jeopardy. We conclude that the trial court was correct in concluding that jeopardy had attached when defendant’s plea of guilty to charges of hindering prosecution was accepted and entered. We therefore affirm.

Defendant was arrested after a shooting in Portland on March 17, 1981. The prosecutor offered defendant a deal whereby murder and felony murder charges would be dismissed and defendant would be allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of hindering prosecution if defendant would agree to testify against a co-defendant, Donald Sims. On July 6, 1981, defendant entered an unconditional guilty plea to the hindering prosecution charge. The plea was accepted by the court, and an “Order Entering Plea of Guilty” was signed by the trial judge that day. The case was continued to August 7, 1981, for sentencing. At the August hearing, and before the imposition of sentence, the prosecutor stated that the state would not be willing to proceed unless defendant agreed to waive jeopardy. That issue had not previously been discussed with defendant or his attorney. At that time defendant, directly and through his attorney, stated that he wanted to be sentenced that day and was willing to waive his right to the defense of double jeopardy. Defendant was given a five-year sentence.

Defendant later refused to testify at the omnibus hearing in Sims’ case. The state then attempted to prosecute defendant for murder and felony murder. It is admitted that those charges arose from the same series of events as the hindering prosecution charge and that the prosecutor knew of defendant’s involvement in those events. The trial court dismissed the murder charges, holding that jeopardy had attached when defendant’s guilty plea to the hindering prosecution charge was entered and that the purported waiver that took place at the sentencing hearing was not timely and was of no consequence.

The state argues that jeopardy did not attach until judgment was entered and that defendant’s waiver *223 therefore was effective. 1 The state argues alternatively that defendant repudiated his double jeopardy defense by breaching his plea bargain and refusing to testify in the Sims case.

Prohibitions against double jeopardy are contained in the state and federal constitutions and in ORS 131.505 to 131.535. The state argues that the protection afforded under the statute is the same as the constitutional protection. We agree that the determination of when jeopardy attached requires the same analysis under the statute and the constitutional provisions.

ORS 131.515(2) provides:

“No person shall be separately prosecuted for two or more offenses based upon the same criminal episode, if the several offenses are reasonably known to the appropriate prosecutor at the time of commencement of the first prosecution and established proper venue in a single court.”

ORS 131.505(5) provides:

“A person is ‘prosecuted for an offense’ when he is charged therewith by an accusatory instrument filed in any court of this state or in any court of any political subdivision of this state, and when the action either:
“(a) Terminates in a conviction upon a plea of guilty; or

When a defendant enters a guilty plea the trial court is required to determine that it is intelligently and voluntarily made, ORS 135.390, and to inform the defendant of the nature of the charge and the potential penalties and of the rights that are waived by entry of a guilty pea. ORS 135.385. That is to be done before the court accepts the plea.

The state argues that defendant was not convicted until judgment was entered because, it urges, a guilty plea is not final. The state contends a guilty plea is solely the act of the defendant and may be withdrawn at any time before judgment is entered. It relies on ORS 135.365:

*224 “The court may at any time before judgment, upon a plea of guilty or no contest, permit it to be withdrawn and a plea of not guilty substituted therefor.”

ORS 135.385 and 135.390 demonstrate, however, that acceptance of a guilty plea is not solely the act of a defendant, but is an affirmative action by the court. In addition, ORS 135.365 has been interpreted to mean that a defendant may not always withdraw a guilty plea. Whether to allow withdrawal of a plea is in the discretion of the trial court. State v. Cornelius, 249 Or 454, 438 P2d 1020 (1968); State v. Burnett, 228 Or 556, 365 P2d 1060 (1961). It will not ordinarily be considered an abuse of discretion to refuse to allow withdrawal of a guilty plea when the defendant fully understood his rights, the nature of the charge against him and the consequences of the plea. State v. Burnett, supra; Schreck v. Cupp, 32 Or App 605, 575 P2d 662 (1978); see ORS 135.385 and 135.390.

The statutory scheme indicates that once a guilty plea has been accepted by the court, the defendant has been placed in “jeopardy.” The court may then proceed to enter judgment and sentence the defendant. A defendant has no right to withdraw his or her plea, and a judgment of conviction will be entered unless the court should determine pursuant to ORS 135.395 that there is an insufficient factual basis for the plea.

The state argues that the term “conviction” in ORS 131.505(5) requires sentencing and entry of judgment. The statute does not define the term “conviction.” In other contexts it has been noted that the term has at least two meanings:

“ ‘In the states having no statutory definition and in the fourteen states that have enacted a general definition, the courts define “conviction” in two ways. The first view equates a conviction with the determination of guilt, either by plea of guilty or by the court’s or jury’s verdict of guilty.

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Related

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State v. Dintelman
829 P.2d 719 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
660 P.2d 690, 62 Or. App. 220, 1983 Ore. App. LEXIS 2422, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-taylor-orctapp-1983.