Hardy v. Morris

In August of 1979, appellant pled guilty to a charge of murder in the first degree. His plea followed plea negotiations, and no appeal was taken from the judgment entered on the plea. On January 18, 1980, appellant filed a petition for a writ of habe-as corpus alleging that he was induced to plead guilty without full knowledge of the facts, of the charges against him, and of possible defenses. The petition was dismissed and appellant took this timely appeal from the dismissal.

While the appeal was pending, the state made this motion to dismiss, stating that on May 23, 1981, appellant escaped…