People v. Baret

Because I think that connected pleas have an inherent tendency to coerce and, thus, deserve heightened scrutiny, I respectfully dissent.

At the core of the constitutional requirement that a guilty plea be entered voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently (see People v Fiumefreddo, 82 NY2d 536, 543 [1993]) is the additional, unremarkable requirement that there “be an affirmative showing on the record” that defendant waived his or her constitutional protections (id.). In my view, defendant’s allegations of coercion—though not a model of specificity—under the circumstances sufficiently raised…