Section 31.26 Issues Regarding Guilty Pleas and Factual Basis

• Library: Criminal Practice 2012 Supp

D. (§31.26) Issues Regarding Guilty Pleas and Factual Basis

Missouri continues to recognize claims of error affecting the voluntariness and understanding with which the defendant entered the guilty plea. The court of appeals has granted post-conviction relief when a guilty plea was accepted despite the lack of an underlying factual basis establishing the commission of a crime. Jones v. State, 758 S.W.2d 153, 155 (Mo. App. E.D. 1988). In Long v. State, 745 S.W.2d 724 (Mo. App. W.D. 1987), the court ordered a hearing on the defendant’s claim that he wrongly believed that any sentence imposed following a probation revocation would not exceed the term of probation originally ordered. See also Eakins v. State, 734 S.W.2d 290, 293-94 (Mo. App. E.D. 1987).

A claim that the factual basis made during a guilty plea hearing does not sustain a conviction for the charged offense is a cognizable claim under Rule 24.035. See, e.g., England v. State, 85 S.W.3d 103, 106 (Mo. App. W.D. 2002); Jones v. State, 117 S.W.3d 209 (Mo. App. S.D. 2003). In England the court found that the factual basis made on a charge of first degree assault, which required proof of an “attempt to kill,” did not establish that the defendant acted purposefully with the

specific intent to kill the victim of the assault. England, 85 S.W.3d at 106–07. In Jones the court concluded that the defendant’s guilty plea to second degree assault lacked a sufficient factual basis when:

the charge was not read or referred to at the plea hearing;

the pre-sentence investigation...