Ware v. State

379 So. 2d 904
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1980
Docket51398
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 379 So. 2d 904 (Ware v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ware v. State, 379 So. 2d 904 (Mich. 1980).

Opinion

379 So.2d 904 (1980)

Eugene WARE
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 51398.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 30, 1980.

Edmund Lee Baugh, Jr., Aberdeen, for appellant.

A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Karen A. Gilfoy, Asst. Atty. Gen. and Carolyn B. Mills, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

EN BANC.

COFER, Justice, for the Court:

The opinion and the dissenting opinion hereinbefore entered are withdrawn after consideration of appellee's Petition for Rehearing, and the following is the controlling opinion.

Eugene Ware entered plea of guilty in the Circuit Court of Monroe County to two charges (1) aggravated assault and (2) attempted armed robbery, to which charges he had earlier pleaded not guilty. In the proceedings leading to his change in his plea, the court meticulously explained the results of his plea and made sure he understood the consequences and that his plea was voluntarily and understandingly chosen. He was not advised, until it was made a part of his sentencing proceedings, that the sentence for attempted armed robbery was without parole.

*905 Mississippi Code Annotated, section 47-7-3 (Supp. 1978), provides in part:

(d) No person shall be eligible for parole who shall on or after January 1, 1977, be convicted of robbery or attempted robbery through the display of a firearm.

Appellant's plea of guilty took place on October 25, 1978, and his sentence was imposed on November 3, 1978, at which time the sentencing court informed him the sentence would be served without parole.

Promptly after the sentence was imposed appellant filed petition for writ of error coram nobis. The petition, with appellant faltering to some small degree in its prosecution, was heard fully and denied by the circuit court.

This appeal from that denial is upon two assignments of error:

1. The trial court committed reversible error in denying appellant's petition for writ of error coram nobis.

2. Appellant was not afforded effective assistance of counsel.

A careful search of the record fails to reveal an actual reliance on any hope of parole while deliberating on whether to enter his guilty plea. There is not shown any effort to procure a delay before the actual sentencing when, thereat, he learned for the first time that there would not be any parole available.

Unless the trial court's judgment amounts to a clear abuse of judicial discretion or that the court's decision on the coram nobis petition is incorrect, the court's denial of the writ, after full hearing as here shown to have taken place, will not be disturbed on appeal.

In Botts v. State, 210 So.2d 777 (Miss. 1968), this Court said:

The function of a writ of error coram nobis is to bring to the court's attention some matter of fact which does not appear on the face of the record which was unknown to the court or the parties at the time, and which, if known, and properly presented, would have prevented the rendition of the original judgment ...
The burden of proof is upon the petitioner on an application for a writ of error coram nobis to establish to a reasonable probability facts upon which he relies for relief. (Authorities omitted).
The question as to whether or not a new trial should be granted on an application for a writ of error coram nobis is largely within the sound discretion of the trial court, and where the record discloses the full hearing on the petition, the judgment of the trial court should be sustained unless it appears on appeal that the judgment is a clear abuse of judicial discretion or that the order of the trial court on the hearing upon a petition for writ of error coram nobis is incorrect as a matter of law. (Emphasis added). (210 So.2d at 779).

We are without precedent in this jurisdiction by which to be guided in resolving the question as to whether the bar against parole in this case should have been explained to appellant before his plea.

Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), spoke thus:

What is at stake for an accused facing death or imprisonment demands the utmost solicitude of which courts are capable in canvassing the matter with the accused to make sure he has a full understanding of what the plea connotes and of its consequence. . .. (Emphasis added). (395 U.S. at 244, 89 S.Ct. at 1712, 23 L.Ed.2d at 280).

In Alexander v. State, 226 So.2d 905 (Miss. 1969), we said:

Of equal importance, in a crucial stage of a criminal proceeding, is the decision of an accused to plead guilty to a felony charge. The trial court should not accept a guilty plea or a change from a not guilty to a guilty plea without first addressing the defendant personally and determining that the plea is made voluntarily with understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequence of the plea. (Emphasis added). (226 So.2d at 909).

*906 As mentioned above, we have not addressed the question as to whether deprivation of parole is one of those consequences necessarily to be known and understood by a pleading defendant. There is not unanimity on the issue among the courts.

The state, in support of its petition for rehearing, has cited United States v. Timmreck, 441 U.S. 780, 99 S.Ct. 2085, 60 L.Ed.2d 634 (1979). Timmreck entered a guilty plea to an indictment for a drug offense, in which, by statute, there accompanies the sentence a special mandatory parole period of years. 21 U.S.C.A. section 841(b)(1)(A). The sentencing judge explained to Timmreck the consequences of his plea, but failed to include in his information that there would be the mandatory parole term at the conclusion of the sentence. Timmreck took no appeal, but moved to vacate the sentence on the ground that Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure had not been followed through the Court's failure to apprise him of the parole time at the end of his imprisonment. That rule provides, and did when Ware was sentenced, in pertinent part:

* * * * * *
(c) Advice to Defendant. Before accepting a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, the court must address the defendant personally in open court and inform him of, and determine that he understands, the following:
(1) The nature of the charge to which the plea is offered, the mandatory minimum penalty provided by law, if any, and the maximum possible penalty provided by law; ... .

The United States Supreme Court, citing Hill v. U.S., 368 U.S. 424, 82 S.Ct. 468, 7 L.Ed.2d 417 (1962), held:

The reasoning in Hill is equally applicable to a formal violation of Rule 11. Such a violation is neither constitutional nor jurisdictional: the 1966 amendment to Rule 11 obviously could not amend the Constitution or limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts.

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Bluebook (online)
379 So. 2d 904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ware-v-state-miss-1980.