State v. Yoon, 8328
| Court | Supreme Court of Hawai'i |
| Writing for the Court | Before LUM, Acting C.J., NAKAMURA, PADGETT and HAYASHI, JJ., and AU; NAKAMURA |
| Citation | 66 Haw. 342,662 P.2d 1112 |
| Parties | STATE of Hawaii, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert YOON, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Docket Number | No. 8328,8328 |
| Decision Date | 18 April 1983 |
Syllabus by the Court
1. The process of plea bargaining and the adjudicative element inherent in accepting a plea of guilty must be attended by safeguards to insure the defendant what is reasonably due in the circumstances. Those circumstances will vary, but a constant factor is that when a plea rests in any significant degree on a promise or agreement of the prosecutor, so that it can be said to be part of the inducement or consideration, such promise must be fulfilled.
2. Courts have frequently looked to contract law analogies in determining the rights of defendants aggrieved in the plea negotiation process. Yet, while such analogies are important to the determination of questions regarding the effects of a plea bargain, they are not solely determinative of the question.
3. The determination of questions regarding the effects of a plea bargain cannot be based solely on contract law, for an unfulfilled plea bargain draws constitutional rights into consideration.
4. The acceptance of a plea by a court following plea bargaining presupposes fairness in securing agreement. It is also clear that a prosecutor's broken promise may deprive a guilty plea of the character of a voluntary act.
5. A dispute over the meaning of a plea agreement involves questions of fact and an appellate court's review of factual determinations rendered below is governed by the "clearly erroneous" standard.
6. Under the "clearly erroneous" standard, a lower court's findings are not disturbed unless, after a review of the whole record, the appellate court is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made.
Shirley Smith, Deputy Pros. Atty., Honolulu, on briefs, for plaintiff-appellant.
Arthur K. Trask, Jr., Deputy Public Defender, Honolulu, on brief, for defendant-appellee.
Before LUM, Acting C.J., NAKAMURA, PADGETT and HAYASHI, JJ., and AU, Circuit Judge, assigned by reason of vacancy.
The question posed by the State of Hawaii's appeal from the dismissal of an indictment against Robert Yoon is whether the offenses charged therein were covered by an earlier plea bargain. The Circuit Court of the First Circuit found they were on the basis of evidence presented by the prosecutors who negotiated the agreement. Since we cannot say the court clearly erred, we affirm the order dismissing the indictment.
The plea bargain in question stemmed from a meeting on October 2, 1980 attended by the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, his Acting First Deputy, and the Chief Assistant Public Defender of the State. The prosecutors and defense counsel there agreed Robert Yoon (the defendant) would plead guilty to seven counts of Theft and one count of Possession of a Firearm by a Person Convicted of Certain Crimes on condition that the prosecution would not seek extended prison terms on the resulting convictions and would move to have nolle prosequi entered on a First Degree Armed Robbery charge. The foregoing represented the sum total of the formal charges then pending against the defendant. As agreed, guilty pleas were entered on his behalf and a motion for the entry of nolle prosequi was filed by the prosecution on October 22, 1980. Robert Yoon was subsequently sentenced to concurrent five year terms of imprisonment on the convictions.
But unbeknownst to the prosecutors and defense counsel who negotiated the agreement, as well as the defendant, a police report on the defendant's alleged involvement in other criminal activity related to the sale of drugs in April of 1980 had been transmitted to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney on October 10, 1980. And the Grand Jury of the First Circuit returned an indictment charging Robert Yoon with two counts of Promoting a Dangerous Drug in the Second Degree on November 22, 1980 at the instance of a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney. The prosecutor who sought the indictment had not been apprised of the negotiated agreement.
The Grand Jury action resulted in further discussion of the plea bargain among the Prosecuting Attorney, his First Deputy, and the Chief Assistant Public Defender. At this meeting the Public Defender's position was "that it was not fair for the defendant to be facing two more charges which allegedly took place in the month of April, 1980"; he claimed the purpose of the agreement was to resolve all of the cases then pending against the defendant. Mr. Nakagawa, the Prosecuting Attorney, concurred with the Public Defender because the charges "would have been resolved had ... [the parties] been aware of their existence at the time the initial agreement was reached." The Public Defender was thus given to understand there would be no prosecution of the offenses. Shortly, however, Mr. Nakagawa was succeeded in office by Mr. Marsland, the present Prosecuting Attorney, and the prosecution did not move to implement the understanding. 1
The defendant moved to dismiss the indictment on May 1, 1981, averring the offenses set forth were covered by the arrangement whereby he was imprisoned and the plea bargain should therefore be enforced. The motion was heard on May 27, 1981, and evidence on the content of the agreement was presented through testimony adduced from the members of the prosecution team who had negotiated it on behalf of the State, the former Prosecuting Attorney and his Acting First Deputy. The incumbent Prosecuting Attorney was also called to testify on procedures employed in his administration with respect to the processing of cases and plea bargaining.
The circuit court thereafter found the State was bound by the plea agreement, and the indictment was dismissed by an order entered on June 22, 1981.
The issue before us concerns the breadth of a plea bargain struck between the State and the defendant through counsel. "For decades ... [plea bargaining] was a sub rosa process shrouded in secrecy and deliberately concealed by participating defendants, defense lawyers, prosecutors, and even judges." Blackledge v. Allison, 431 U.S. 63, 76, 97 S.Ct. 1621, 1630, 52 L.Ed.2d 136 (1977) (footnote omitted). The practice emerged from the shadows and became a visible and accepted component of the criminal justice system when it was legitimated by the United States Supreme Court in Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971).
The petitioner in Santobello, not unlike Robert Yoon, had " 'bargained' and negotiated for a particular plea in order to secure dismissal of more serious charges, but also on condition that no sentence recommendation would be made by the prosecutor." Id. at 262, 92 S.Ct. at 499. He withdrew prior not-guilty pleas to two felony counts and pleaded guilty to a lesser-included offense. When he appeared for sentencing later, another prosecutor, who apparently was not informed of his colleague's commitment to make no recommendation regarding sentence, recommended the imposition of the maximum one-year sentence prescribed for the offense to which the petitioner had pleaded. Though petitioner objected and unsuccessfully sought to withdraw his guilty plea, he was sentenced to the maximum term. The judgment of conviction was vacated and the case was remanded to the state court for reconsideration in the light of the concerns expressed in the Supreme Court's opinion.
The Court deemed the "disposition of criminal charges by agreement between the prosecutor and the accused ... an essential component of the administration of justice" and "[p]roperly administered, ... [a practice] to be encouraged." Id. at 260, 92 S.Ct. at 498. For it recognized that "[i]f every criminal charge were subjected to a full-scale trial, the States and the Federal Government would need to multiply by many times the number of judges and court facilities." Id. Plea bargaining was further characterized as a desirable part of the criminal justice system because the practice
leads to prompt and largely final disposition of most criminal cases; it avoids much of the corrosive impact of enforced idleness during pretrial confinement for those who are denied release pending trial; it protects the public from those accused persons who are prone to continue criminal conduct even while on pretrial release; and, by shortening the time between charge and disposition, it enhances whatever may be the rehabilitative prospects of the guilty when they are ultimately imprisoned. See Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 751-752 [90 S.Ct. 1463, 1470-71, 25 L.Ed.2d 747] (1970).
Id. 404 U.S. at 261, 92 S.Ct. at 498. And the Court's holding was couched in the following terms:
This phase of the process of criminal justice, and the adjudicative element inherent in accepting a plea of guilty, must be attended by safeguards to insure the defendant what is reasonably due in the circumstances. Those circumstances will vary, but a constant factor is that when a plea rests in any significant degree on a promise or agreement of the prosecutor, so that it can be said to be part of the inducement or consideration, such promise must be fulfilled.
Id. at 262, 92 S.Ct. at 499. Thus, if Robert Yoon's guilty pleas to the seven counts of Theft and the firearm offense entered on October 22, 1980 rested in any significant degree on a promised resolution of all the cases then pending against him, due process would indeed call for a fulfillment of the State's end of the bargain. Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 362, 98 S.Ct. 663, 667, 54 L.Ed.2d 604 (1978); Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. at 262, 92 S.Ct. at 499; State v. Waiau, 60 Haw. 93, 96-97, 588 P.2d 412, 414-15 (1978); State v. Gumienny, 58 Haw. 304, 308, 568 P.2d 1194, 1197-98 (1977).
Implicit in the circuit court's ruling is a finding that the guilty pleas entered in writing on October 22, 1980 were...
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