Commonwealth v. Sherman

Nearly ten years after he had pleaded guilty to rape and assault and had been sentenced, the defendant, Larry H. Sherman, Jr., moved for a new trial. The motion was granted on the ground that his guilty pleas had not been made intelligently. A judge in the Superior Court concluded that the record of the hearing where he changed his pleas to guilty “does not demonstrate that the defendant was advised of the elements of the offense of rape, nor that the defendant admitted facts sufficient to display he understood the elements of the offense independent of any explanation from the court or from…