Commonwealth v. Cottrell
| Decision Date | 15 January 1969 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Thomas COTTRELL, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Herman I. Pollock, Defender, Philadelphia, Melvin Dildine, Chief Appeals Div., Defender Assn., for appellant.
Arlen Specter, Dist. Atty., James D. Crawford, Asst. Dist. Atty Chief, Appeals Div., Barnett S. Lotstein, Asst. Dist. Atty Richard A. Sprague, First Asst. Dist. Atty., Philadelphia for appellee.
Before BELL, C.J., and JONES, COHEN, EAGEN, O'BRIEN and ROBERTS, JJ.
On April 12, 1965, the appellant, Thomas Cottrell, in the presence of court-appointed counsel, entered a general plea of guilty to an indictment charging him with the murder of his common-law wife. Following the taking of testimony, the trial court adjudged him guilty of murder in the second degree and imposed a sentence of 10 to 20 years imprisonment. No appeal was entered from the judgment.
On January 3, 1967, Cottrell instituted proceedings seeking post conviction relief which was denied to him after hearing. This appeal followed.
During the plea proceedings, Cottrell personally testified that he was drinking on the day involved and that he had no recollection of the killing or of anything related to it. He reiterated this testimony at the post conviction hearing. It is now argued that since at the time the plea was entered Cottrell could not remember if he had committed the crime, it necessarily follows that his plea of guilty was not intelligently entered. In our view, this is a non sequitur.
It is axiomatic that for a plea of guilt to be constitutionally valid, it must be the voluntary and intelligent act of the maker. Commonwealth ex rel. Barnosky v. Maroney, 414 Pa. 161, 199 A.2d 424 (1964). In short, it cannot be the product of ignorance, i.e., the accused must know what he is doing and be fully aware of the consequences of his act. Commonwealth ex rel. West v. Myers, 423 Pa. 1, 222 A.2d 918 (1966). And where the accused at the time of arraignment does not know, or asserts that he does not know whether he has committed the crime, a plea of guilty to that crime should be accepted with great caution. [1] However, such a situation, as the one just described, is not to be equated with a situation where the accused admits his guilt in one breath, but in the next proclaims his innocence. The latter clearly would not be a sufficient plea upon which to enter a judgment. But where there is significant evidence of guilt as there was in the present case, [2] and the accused, after adequate consultation with his counsel, decides to plead guilty, that plea is not rendered invalid merely because the accused is unable or unwilling to detail the occurrence in court. Cf. Maxwell v. United States, 368 F.2d 735 (9th Cir. 1966); McCoy v....
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... ... And finally our trial courts are positively barred from ... accepting pleas from defendants who are unable to say that ... they committed the acts with which they stand charged. See, ... e.g., Commonwealth v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 269 A.2d 709 ... (1970); Commonwealth v. Cottrell, 433 Pa. 177, 249 A.2d 294 ... As the Supreme Court said in Brady, '(we) would ... have serious doubts about this case if (plea bargaining) ... increased the likelihood that defendants, advised by ... competent counsel, would falsely condemn themselves. But our ... view is to the contrary and ... ...
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North Carolina v. Alford, 14
...71, 39 N.E.2d 361 (1942); State ex rel. Crossley v. Tahash, 263 Minn. 299, 307—308, 116 N.W.2d 666, 672 (1962); Commonwealth v. Cottrell, 433 Pa. 177, 249 A.2d 294 (1969). Cf. United States ex rel. Brown v. LaVallee, 424 F.2d 457 (CA2 This Court has not confronted this precise issue, but pr......
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...the crime.' 400 U.S. at 37, 91 S.Ct. at 167. We had reached the same conclusion almost two years earlier in Com. v. Cottrell, 433 Pa. 177, 249 A.2d 294 (1969). However, this language must be read in conjunction with Com. v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 202, 269 A.2d 709, 711 'We think it is logi......
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Commonwealth v. Sampson
...the crime.' 400 U.S. at 37, 91 S.Ct. at 167. We had reached the same conclusion almost two years earlier in Com. v. Cottrell, 433 Pa. 177, 249 A.2d 294 (1969). However, this language must be read in conjunction Com. v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 202, 269 A.2d 709, 711 (1970): 'We think it is l......