Hall v. State

Inexplicably the appellant, John Henry Hall, made an open plea of guilty to the trial court with respect to various property crimes, even though punishment was sought of him as a prison releasee reoffen-der. He was sentenced to the mandatory 15 years in prison by virtue of that status, and because one the crimes he admitted to was a second-degree felony. What makes this inexplicable is that the State offered Mr. Hall in exchange for his plea a ten-year prison sentence, followed by five years of probation. In the face of a 15 year mandatory sentence, and given an offer of substantially less…