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599 S.W.2d 823

Thomas v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1980-06-11

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The 1965 Code of Criminal Procedure provides that a defendant may waive a jury trial and enter a plea of not guilty before the court in all except capital cases. Articles 1.13 and 1.14, V.A.C.C.P. There now seems to be no valid reason for the court to withdraw the guilty plea and enter a plea of not guilty for the defendant when the defendant enters a plea of guilty before the court after waiving a jury. It is the duty of the trial court to consider the evidence submitted and as the trier of the facts the court may find the appellant guilty of a lesser offense and assess the appropriate punishment or it may find the defendant not guilty. It would serve no purpose to withdraw the plea of guilty and enter a not guilty plea.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Williams v. State

Relies on Moon v. State · Knight v. State · Sullivan v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1980-06-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently March 2006

9 state decisions

40198019902000decided

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.

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¶1OPINION

DALLY, Judge.

¶2Appellant waived trial by jury and entered a plea of guilty before the court to the offense of possession of a controlled substance, namely, heroin. Art. 4476-15, Sec. 4.04, V.A.C.S. The court assessed punishment at imprisonment for five years in the Texas Department of Corrections.

¶3In a single ground of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred by failing to sua sponte withdraw appellant’s plea of guilty when evidence was introduced which reasonably raised the question as to the appellant’s guilt.

¶4The record contains a written judicial confession wherein the appellant stated: “I did knowingly and intentionally possess a controlled substance, to-wit: heroin, as charged in the indictment.”

¶5The appellant contends that her own testimony after her plea of guilty raised a question of her guilt. The appellant had testified that she did not purchase the heroin and that she had no idea the heroin had been left in her purse.

¶6In Moon v. State, 572 S.W.2d 681 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), this Court held that a trial court is no longer required to sua sponte withdraw a plea of guilty and enter a plea of not guilty for a defendant when the defendant enters the plea of guilty before the court after waiving a jury, even if evidence is adduced that might reasonably and fairly raise an issue of fact as to the guilt of the defendant. The trial judge as the trier of the facts may without withdrawing the plea decide the issue either finding the defendant not guilty or guilty as he believes the facts require. See Sullivan v. State, 573 S.W.2d 1, 4 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) and Knight v. State, 581 S.W.2d 692 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). After having already received appellant’s written judicial confession, the trial court did not err in failing to sua sponte withdraw appellant’s plea of guilty and enter a plea of not guilty for her. Appellant’s contention is overruled.

¶7The judgment is affirmed.

ONION, Presiding Judge,

¶8dissenting.

¶9This is a classic example of why the rule in Moon v. State, 572 S.W.2d 681 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), overruling long time precedent is wrong. Here before the finding of guilt by the trial court the appellant testified under oath that she did not purchase the heroin and had no idea that the heroin was in her purse which had been loaned to a friend. When this testimony was received, the court sua sponte should have halted the proceedings and offered the appellant an opportunity to withdraw such testimony or enter a plea of not guilty. If the appellant had refused such action, the court should then have entered a not guilty plea for her before proceeding.

¶10It offends my sense of justice that a guilty plea proceeding is allowed to continue despite a defendant’s protestations of innocence.

¶11I dissent.

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