Albert Charles Burgess, Jr. v. J.H. Griffin, Superintendent of McCain Prison Unit and the State of North Carolina

The State of North Carolina appeals from the district court’s grant of Albert Burgess’s petition for habeas corpus relief. In January 1979, Albert Burgess, expressly waiving a defective indictment, pled guilty in North Carolina Superior Court to taking indecent liberties with children. After several appearances at sentencing hearings but before sentencing, Burgess fled to South Carolina. After his capture, he was again indicted for taking indecent liberties with children, this time on twenty-seven different counts, despite the state’s earlier assurance that the initial charge to which he pled…