Suppose that after judgment is entered a defendant wants to challenge a plea. Maybe he alleges that the plea wasn’t knowing and voluntary. Or maybe he claims that the judge imposed an illegal sentence. Can the defendant do this? I like to break this question into two parts: (1) Does the claim survive the plea? (2) If so, what procedural mechanism can be used to assert it? This post addresses both issues. Claims Waived By The Plea. As a general rule, a defendant who knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently enters an unconditional guilty plea waives all defects in the proceeding, including constitutional defects, that occurred before entry of the plea. See State v. Reynolds, 298 N.C. 380, 395 (1979) (fourth amendment claim waived); see also State v. Harwood, __ N.C. App. __, 746 S.E.2d 445, 451-52 (2013) (double jeopardy claim waived). There are however some exceptions to this general rule: Exception: Claims Challenging Power of State to Prosecute. A guilty plea doesn’t waive a claim challenging “the power of the State to bring the defendant into court to answer the charge.” Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 30 (1974); Reynolds, 298 N.C. at 395. Thus, a defendant who has pleaded guilty would not be barred from asserting, for example, a jurisdictional defect in the proceedings. See, e.g., State v. Neville, 108 N.C. App. 330, 333 (1992) (pleaded-to offense was not charged in the indictment and the defendant never signed a waiver of a bill of indictment). Exception: Defect in the Plea Itself. [...]
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