Williams v. Com.

• Decision Date: 26 April 1907
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. COMMONWEALTH.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

101 S.W. 381

WILLIAMS v. COMMONWEALTH.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

April 26, 1907

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County, Criminal Branch.

"Not to be officially reported."

Charles Williams was convicted of grand larceny, and appeals. Affirmed.

N. R Harper, for appellant.

N. B Hays, Atty. Gen., C. H. Morris, and Morris & South, for the Commonwealth.

O'REAR C.J.

Appellant was indicted by the grand jury of Jefferson county, charged with grand larceny. He waived arraignment and pleaded not guilty. When his trial came on he requested leave of the court to withdraw his plea of not guilty, and to enter instead the plea of guilty, which was permitted and done. After the jury had been selected, sworn, and instructed by the court, appellant was given leave at his own request to make a statement to the jury. In the course of the statement he said that he in fact was not guilty, but, being poor and without means or friends, he thought it best to plead guilty and throw himself upon the mercy of the jury. Whereupon the court ordered the plea of guilty to be withdrawn, and reassigned the case for trial. On the next trial appellant entered a plea of former jeopardy, which was overruled, and the trial proceeded, resulting in a verdict of guilty. This appeal presents the sole question of the effect of the action of the trial court in withdrawing the defendant's plea of guilty.

The record is not in a very satisfactory condition. It does not show what plea was treated by the court on the final trial as presenting the issue, but presumably the court treated the first plea of not guilty as having been reinstated by the order withdrawing the plea of guilty. Nor does the record show whether the defendant was tried by the same jury before whom the plea of guilty was entered. If he was, then there could be no question of former jeopardy. So far as the record shows, appellant conducted his own defense at the time of the entering and withdrawing of his plea of guilty. The trial court evidently regarded the statement of the defendant to the jury that he was not guilty as a withdrawal of his former plea of guilty. The court ought never to permit one to be convicted and sentenced for felony upon his plea of guilty under the circumstances stated by the defendant; for it would be, not only most unseemly, but insufferable, that any person in this land should be so helpless within the courts that his poverty alone...