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Motley v. State

Defendant's affirmative nod on the record to questions about whether he understood his right to remain silent and the legal presumption of innocence supported the trial court's acceptance of his guilty plea to malice murder.

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Appellant Michael Jerome Motley was sentenced to life imprisonment after he entered a guilty plea to the charge of malice murder lodged against him in connection with the fatal shooting of Nitinkumar Patel in Colquitt County.1 Appellant timely filed a notice of appeal and contends on appeal that the trial court erred in accepting the guilty plea because his failure to give a verbal response to two of the questions put to him by the trial court indicates his plea was not knowing, intelligent, or voluntary.2

The transcript of the guilty plea hearing reveals that the appellant was made aware of and acknowledged, either verbally or by nodding his head affirmatively, that by pleading guilty he was waiving the rights and privileges listed in Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.8 B, including the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, the right to trial by jury, and the right to confront his accusers. See Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 89 SC 1709 23 LE2d 274 1969; Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.8 B. The trial court further told appellant, and appellant affirmatively acknowledged, that the crime to which he was pleading guilty carried a mandatory penalty of life imprisonment. USCR 33.8 C2. The assistant district attorney informed the trial court of the factual basis of the plea USCR 33.9 and, after acknowledging the truth of the ADA’s summary of the factual basis of the crime, appellant entered his guilty plea verbally and by signing the back of the indictment.

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