White v. State

SHEPARD, Justice.

We turn today to a question much debated in Indiana for the past five years: when a petition for post-conviction relief alleges that a guilty plea was not made voluntarily and intelligently, by what standard should the evidence on that claim be tested? We granted transfer in this case to establish a new standard.

On September 25, 1981, appellant Randy D. White appeared with his attorney in Marion Superior Court and pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, a class B felony, and theft, a class D felony, The trial judge sentenced him to consecutive terms of ten years and two years.

I…