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State v. Futch

The trial court was authorized to find that the state failed to show that the defendant was informed of the constitutional rights he waived in pleading guilty to criminal damage to property.

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John Randall Futch filed a petition for habeas corpus relief from his felony conviction for criminal damage to property, alleging that his guilty plea was not voluntarily entered. The habeas court granted relief and the State appeals. Because the record supports the habeas court’s factual finding that Futch was not informed of the constitutional rights he was waiving in pleading guilty, we affirm. Futch pled guilty to criminal damage to property in 1993 and was sentenced to four years probation. Subsequently, this conviction was used to enhance a sentence Futch received on a federal criminal charge. In 2004, Futch filed this habeas petition challenging the voluntariness of his 1993 guilty plea.

1. Once a prisoner raises a question about the validity of his guilty plea, the burden is on the State to show that the plea was voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently made.1 Because no transcript exists of the plea hearing, the State attempted to meet its burden through extrinsic evidence.2 Futch’s plea counsel testified that she had no independent recollection of Futch’s case and that it would be difficult to describe a particular practice she followed. She testified that she would have explained the elements of the crime to which a defendant was pleading and would make sure the plea was a good deal for the defendant, but neither she nor the judge would go over the particular rights that the defendant was waiving.

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