Burns v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the denial of Leviticus Burns’s motion for an out-of-time appeal following his negotiated guilty plea to murder. The court held that the plea record sufficiently demonstrated waiver of the applicable Boykin rights, while claims requiring an evidentiary hearing had to be pursued through habeas corpus; it also held that the guilty plea waived challenges to the arrest warrant.

Holdings

1. A criminal defendant has no unqualified right to a direct appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence entered on a guilty plea; an appeal lies only when the issue can be resolved from facts appearing in the record.
2. The plea was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent because the advisement that Burns had the right to remain silent or testify on his own behalf at trial sufficiently conveyed the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination; Boykin does not require magic words.
3. A trial court's failure to read every right enumerated in Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.8 does not, by itself, render a guilty plea involuntary or constitutionally invalid under the Georgia Constitution.
4. The ineffective-assistance allegations could not be reviewed in the out-of-time-appeal proceeding because they required a post-plea evidentiary hearing; they must instead be pursued through habeas corpus.
5. Burns waived defenses concerning the validity of his arrest warrant by entering a guilty plea.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Burns had an appeal as of right from his judgment of conviction and sentence entered on a guilty plea.
2. Whether the plea was involuntary or constitutionally invalid because Burns was told of his right to remain silent but not expressly told of a separately worded right against self-incrimination.
3. Whether failure to read every right listed in Uniform Superior Court Rule 33.8 rendered the plea invalid under the Georgia Constitution.
4. Whether ineffective-assistance allegations concerning parole eligibility and appellate rights could be resolved on an out-of-time appeal based solely on the existing record.
5. Whether Burns's guilty plea waived his challenge to the validity of his arrest warrant.

Disposition

affirmed