State v. Insley
| Decision Date | 28 May 1958 |
| Parties | , 51 Del. 196 The STATE of Delaware, Appellant, v. Dorothy Lee West INSLEY, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Delaware |
F. Alton Tybout, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellant.
David Snellenburg, II (of Killoran & Van Brunt), Wilmington, for appelee.
This case relates to the right of a defendant in a criminal case to withdraw a plea of guilty and obtain a trial on the merits.
About midnight on September 6, 1957, Dorothy Lee West Insley, the defendant, was arrested by a State Police officer for the offense of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor. In accordance with standard practice she was detained in custody.
On the following morning, September 7, another State Police officer drove her to the office of a Justice of the Peace in Brandywine Hundred, where she was formally charged. As appears from the transcript of the magistrate's record, she was notified of her right to waive a hearing and appear before the Court of Common Pleas, or to have a hearing at a later date before the magistrate; and was also notified of her right of appeal to the Superior Court.
She elected to plead guilty and was fined $200, the minimum fixed by the statute. The fine was paid.
On September 20, notice of appeal was given and bond filed. The appeal was never perfected.
On October 1 the defendant sued out a writ of certiorari to the Justice of the Peace. The exceptions set forth in substance that on the way to the magistrate's office on the morning of September 7 defendant had a conversation with the State Police officer, and that he made the following statements to her:
'You have a choice of pleading guilty and paying a $200.00 fine and $4.50 costs or of pleading not guilty and risking a fine of $1000.00 and sentence of 30 days in jail.'
These statements are said to have amounted to 'coercion, duress, persuasion and misadvice' invalidating the plea of guilty.
The Superior Court, presumably in order to determine the truth of these allegations, received a statement from the Justice of the Peace, certifying to the circumstances of the arraignment and plea before her, and also an affidavit from the police officer.
The statement from the magistrate is to the effect that the defendant, before pleading guilty, was fully advised of her rights, as before stated, including her right to appear later with counsel. Defendant was also offered the use of the telephone to call any one she wished. The statement also declares that defendant then asked the magistrate and the police officer what she should do and was informed by the magistrate that neither of them could tell her what to do and that she had to decide for herself; that she could call some one if she wished. The defendant appeared to be under a strain and very nervous. She said she did not wish to call any one and pleaded guilty.
The affidavit to the officer is to the effect that he told defendant what were the minimum and maximum fines that could be imposed if she should be found guilty, and explained to her that she could have an immediate hearing or could take her case to the Court of Common Pleas. He denied that he advised the defendant to plead guilty.
After considering the matter, the Superior Court held (1) that the judgment below could not be reversed on certiorari and that the exceptions must be overruled; and (2) that there was conflicting evidence upon the issue of coercion and misadvice; that a substantial question existed whether or not defendant had been denied due process of law; and that all doubts should be resolved in favor of the defendant.
The court then invoked the provisions of the statute relating to its supervisory powers over Justices of the Peace, and that the Justice of the Peace grant to defendant leave to withdraw the plea of guilty and plead not guilty, and directed the Justice of the Peace to try the case on the merits. The State appeals from this order. The defendant does not appeal from the overruling of her exceptions.
The first question that arises is: Under what authority did the Superior Court make the order?
The only matter before the court was the validity of the exceptions to the record. Since these did not directly assail the correctness of the record, the court correctly overruled them. But the court (irregularly, we think) had received the statement and affidavit above referred to, and then treated the record thus made before it as framing an issue as upon a petition for leave to withdraw a plea of guilty and go to trial. Resolving its doubts upon this issue in defendant's favor, it then held (in effect) that it had inherent authority under the statute referred to to direct the Justice of the Peace to grant leave to withdraw the plea.
We are compelled to hold that in so doing the Superior Court committed error.
First, the court had no authority to entertain an application to withdraw a plea of guilty entered before a Justice of the Peace. We find almost no dissent from the proposition that such an application must be made to the trial court. See the cases collected in the annotations at 20 A.L.R. 1445 and 66 A.L.R. 628. State v. Martin, 68 Vt. 93, 34 A. 40, cited by defendant, is inapposite, since Vermont permits an appeal on the merits from a plea of guilty in a magistrate's court. The law in Delaware is to the contrary. Martin v. State, 10 Terry 344, 49 Del. 344, 116 A.2d 685.
The rule is manifestly sound. Such an application calls for the exercise of a sound discretion. The court that received the plea of guilty is in far better position to exercise such a discretion, for it may start (as here) with some personal knowledge of the circumstances under which the plea was entered. Upon overruling the exceptions, the Supreme Court should have dismissed the writ, without prejudice to the defendant's right to make a proper application to the magistrate.
Since we have no reported precedent touching the matter, we think it proper, for the guidance of the magistrate, to say that the procedure before her should follow that contemplated by Rule 32(d) of the Rules of Criminal Procedure of the Superior Court, Del.C.Ann. That Rule reads:
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