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408 So. 2d 686

Docket No. 81-56.

Baker v. State

Howard D. BAKER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided January 6, 1982.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1982-01-06

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“A defendant should be permitted to withdraw a plea `if [s]he files a proper motion and proves that the plea was entered under ... fear, promise, or other circumstances affecting h[er] rights' (emphasis supplied).”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including Graham v. State, Tanzi v. State

“A defendant who deliberately pleads guilty to a criminal charge should not be allowed to withdraw his plea merely because he changes his mind”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Elam v. State

Relies on Pope v. State · 107 So. 2d 56 - Jordan v. State · Alleluio v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1982-01-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently September 2013

17 state decisions

701982199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*687 B. Robert Ohle, St. Petersburg, for appellant.

¶2Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and C. Michael Barnette, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, and Deborah A. Osmond, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

¶3SCHOONOVER, Judge.

¶4The sole issue on this appeal is whether the trial court erred in summarily denying the appellant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea without conducting an evidentiary hearing to determine if he was competent at the time he entered the plea. We agree with the appellant's contention that he should have been allowed a hearing to determine if good cause for withdrawal of the plea existed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(f).

¶5A defendant who deliberately pleads guilty to a criminal charge should not be allowed to withdraw his plea merely because he changes his mind. However, he should be permitted to do so if he files a proper motion and proves that the plea was entered under mental weakness, mistake, surprise, misapprehension, fear, promise, or other circumstances affecting his rights. Pope v. State,56 Fla. 81, 47 So. 487 (1908).

¶6The withdrawal of a guilty plea should not be denied in any case where it is evident that the ends of justice will best be served by permitting it. Jordan v. State,107 So.2d 56 (Fla. 2d DCA 1958).

¶7On July 30, 1980, the appellant pled guilty to attempted sexual battery, and a presentence investigation was ordered.

¶8On September 29, 1980, the appellant filed a motion to withdraw his plea. The motion alleged that evidence obtained subsequent to the entry of the plea, together with his physical condition prior to, during, and after the plea, indicated that he was not competent at the time the plea was entered. The motion also alleged that appellant did not realize he had tendered a plea of guilty until after he had done so, and he believed that he was innocent and desired to stand trial. He was subsequently examined and on October 29, 1980, filed medical reports based upon that examination. One of the reports indicated that the appellant was psychotic, demented, and not competent. The report did not state if the condition existed at the time of the plea.

¶9The motion was summarily denied, and he was sentenced to five years imprisonment on December 18, 1980.

¶10The appellee contends that the motion in this case was not sufficient because it did not set forth reasons to show that good cause existed to believe the guilty plea was not properly entered. However, there were sufficient indications of incompetency presented to the court in the motion and medical reports that an evidentiary hearing *688 should have been held to determine if the plea was voluntarily entered into by one competent to know the consequences of his plea. Alleluio v. State,338 So.2d 1137 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976).

¶11We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent herewith.

¶12SCHEB, C.J., and HOBSON, J., concur.

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