Beck v. State, A96A1465
| Decision Date | 09 July 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. A96A1465,A96A1465 |
| Citation | 222 Ga.App. 168,473 S.E.2d 263 |
| Parties | BECK v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Richard K. Murray, Dalton, for appellant.
Kermit N. McManus, District Attorney, Herbert M. Poston, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
Defendant Beck was charged by indictment with the offenses of armed robbery, violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, and habitual felon. The alleged offense of habitual felon was an invocation of the provisions of OCGA § 17-10-7(b)(2) Ga. L.1994, p. 1959, § 12, effective January 1, 1995, which require a mandatory sentence of life without parole upon conviction of a second serious violent felony, if the defendant is not sentenced to death. Defendant had a previous conviction for armed robbery in 1989. See OCGA § 17-10-6.1 for the definition of "serious violent offender."
During the trial of the case, a plea bargaining agreement was reached and defendant entered his plea of guilty of armed robbery. Under that agreement, the remaining charges were to be nol prossed. Defendant was sentenced to life in prison.
Within thirty days defendant filed a motion styled as a motion for new trial, but which was in substance a motion to withdraw his plea of guilty maintaining that his plea was coerced. This appeal is taken from the denial of that motion. Held:
" ' Spurgeon v. State, 214 Ga.App. 227, 447 S.E.2d 164. See also White v. State, 211 Ga.App. 779, 440 S.E.2d 527, supra.
The plea transcript shows compliance with the procedures required under Uniform Superior Court Rules 33.7, 33.8, and 33.9 in order to establish that a guilty plea was knowing and voluntary. Appropriate responses were made by the defendant to each of the queries from the superior court including an explicit denial that the guilty plea was entered as a result of any threat or promise.
Nonetheless, defendant contends that he did not voluntarily enter his plea in that he was coerced by the threat of sentencing under OCGA § 17-10-7(b)(2), as amended, to a period of life without parole. Defendant maintains that since his first conviction for...
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Johanson v. State, A02A2415.
...the trial court's refusal to allow withdrawal will not be disturbed on appeal absent a manifest abuse of discretion. Beck v. State, 222 Ga.App. 168, 473 S.E.2d 263 (1996). See also Uniform Superior Court Rule (a) Johanson first argues that under OCGA § 17-7-93(b), which gives a criminal def......
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Moore v. State, A97A0035
...a longer sentence is not the type of coercion which prevents a plea from being free and voluntary. [Cits]." Beck v. State, 222 Ga.App. 168, 169, 473 S.E.2d 263 (1996). We find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's denial of Moore's motion to withdraw his plea of guilty to driving unde......
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James v. the State., A11A0177.
...criminal record did not alter his decision to plead guilty rather than risk a guilty verdict and harsh sentence.”); Beck v. State, 222 Ga.App. 168, 169, 473 S.E.2d 263 (1996) (concluding that the defendant's desire to plead guilty to avoid prosecution for additional crimes or to avoid recei......
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Miller v. State, A99A1710.
...Judgment affirmed. POPE, P.J., and SMITH, J., concur. 1.King v. State, 270 Ga. 367, 369(1), 509 S.E.2d 32 (1998); Beck v. State, 222 Ga.App. 168, 473 S.E.2d 263 (1996). 2. King, supra, 270 Ga. at 369(1), 509 S.E.2d 32; Goodman v. Davis, 249 Ga. 11, 13(1), 287 S.E.2d 26 3. King, supra, 270 G......