Clay v. State

• Decision Date: 30 June 1921
• Citation: 89 So. 353,82 Fla. 83
• Parties: CLAY v. STATE.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

89 So. 353

82 Fla. 83

CLAY v. STATE.

Florida Supreme Court

June 30, 1921

Error to Criminal Court of Record, Duval County; James M. Peeler Judge.

C. M Clay was convicted of embezzlement, and she brings error.

Reversed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Discretion of court in refusing to permit withdrawal of plea of guilty reviewable. Though the trial courts have a discretion in granting or refusing to grant permission to withdraw a plea of 'guilty' on a trial of a criminal charge, and to substitute in its stead a plea of not guilty, or a plea in bar, yet the exercise of such discretion is reviewable by the appellate court.

Plea of guilty should be voluntarily made, and where unadvisedly entered should be permitted to be withdrawn. The plea of guilty to a serious criminal charge should be freely and voluntarily made and entered by the accused, without a semblance of coercion, and without fear or duress of any kind, and the accused should be permitted to withdraw a plea of guilty entered unadvisedly, when application therefor is duly made in good faith and sustained by proof, and proper offer is made to go to trial on a plea of not guilty, or other valid plea.

Appellate court may interfere when refusal to allow withdrawal of plea of guilty an abuse of discretion. The law favors trials on the merits, and if the discretion of the trial court is abused in denying leave to withdraw a plea of guilty, and to go to trial on the merits, the appellate court may interfere.

COUNSEL

Edgar W. Waybright and Paul C. Marion, both of Jacksonville, for plaintiff in error.

Rivers H. Buford, Atty. Gen., and J. B. Gaines, Asst. Atty. Gen for the State.

OPINION

TAYLOR J.

Upon her plea of 'guilty' of the offense of embezzlement of the sum of $650 in money, charged in an information filed against her in the criminal court of record for Duval county, the defendant below was sentenced to fine or imprisonment in the county jail, and seeks review of this judgment by the writ of error.

The defendant below, before sentence imposed, moved the court to set aside her plea of 'guilty' and to permit her to interpose the plea of 'not guilty' in its stead, which motion asserted that the defendant be ready at any time, immediately or hereafter, to stand trial on said charge. Attached to the said motion and filed therewith was the following affidavit:

'Personally appeared before me the undersigned authority, C. M. Clay, who, after being duly sworn, deposes and says: That upon the 22d day of June, A. D. 1920, information was filed in the criminal court of record in and for Duval county, state of Florida, against her and one C. D. Clay, her husband, alleging that upon the 28th day of May, A. D. 1920, they, being then and there agents and servants of one J. M. Roan, did, by virtue of their employment as such agents and servants, receive and take into their possession one automobile of the value of $650 of the property, goods, and chattels of the said J. M. Roan, and afterwards, to wit, then and there, did embezzle and fraudulently convert the same to their own use without the consent of the said J. M. Roan,' of which matters this defendant and affiant was in no wise guilty; and while said information was pending the said J. M. Roan repeatedly demanded $650, plus his attorney's fees and expenses in coming to Jacksonville, Fla., from this defendant, stating that if she paid said sums he would have her released, but if she did not pay it he would continue to prosecute her. She employed an attorney to represent her in said action, and upon the 9th day of November, A. D. 1920, the case came on for

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