State of West Virginia v. Keith D.

In this appeal, the defendant argued that he should have been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. The defendant states that he was not informed, prior to entering the plea, that he would be subject to being sentenced to life in prison under the habitual offender statute. The majority opinion rejected the argument and held that the defendant did not have a right to know that he would be sentenced to life in prison prior to the acceptance of his guilty plea. For the reasons set out below, I dissent.

At the outset, it is important to understand that the parties and the majority opinion all agree…