Commonwealth v. Carter

The defendant, who pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and other felonies, seeks to withdraw those pleas. His withdrawal request as to the murder indictment is based on the theory that the record of the proceedings at which he changed his pleas from not guilty to guilty does not show that the defendant admitted to facts sufficient for a determination of malice, which is essential to a conviction of felony-murder and thus also essential to any proper acceptance of the defendant’s plea of guilty to murder. The defendant points out that to establish guilt on the felony-murder theory,…