Armstrong v. State

CLEMENS, Presiding Judge.

Post-conviction proceeding under Rule 27.26.

In October, 1946 defendant-movant pled guilty to murder in the first degree and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In a motion to vacate, he now contends his plea was not voluntarily and intelligently made.

At a hearing on his 27.26 motion, testimony by movant and his trial counsel differed as to whether movant’s guilty plea in 1946 was voluntarily and intelligently entered. The trial court found it was, and also that although movant’s fear of a death sentence had affected his guilty plea it did not constitute coercion. The…