Ex Parte Swain

Petitioner Carolyn Swain was charged with two counts of second degree theft in Jefferson County. She pleaded guilty on one charge and received a two-year sentence. At a hearing on the second charge, Swain asserted that she had entered her guilty plea on the first charge pursuant to a plea agreement she had reached with the state. The terms of that agreement, she contended, were that she would plead guilty to the first charge of second degree theft and in return the state would reduce the second charge to the lesser offense of third degree theft.

Swain made an offer of proof that the attorney…