STATE OF LOUISIANA v. ROLAN WHITE (2022)

During defendant's Boykin ¹ hearing on August 28, 2018, the trial judge asked defendant “[d]o you understand the sentencing range is from zero to forty years; do you understand that,” and the defendant replied “yes.” Moreover, on the “Waiver of Constitutional Rights Plea of Guilty Form,” defendant initialed and acknowledged that the sentencing range in this case could be zero to forty years, as set forth in La. R.S. 14:31. Thus, I do not find that defendant's guilty plea was in any way unknowing, involuntary, or deficient. Accordingly, I would grant the State's writ application and reverse the lower courts’ ruling, thereby reinstating the defendant's original guilty plea and corresponding sentence of twenty years.

FOOTNOTES

1.   Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1711, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969).

CRICHTON, J., would grant and assigns reasons: