Kenneth Blake Watkins v. State of Mississippi

MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Kenneth Watkins argues the circuit court wrongly denied him post-conviction relief (PCR) from his 2010 guilty pleas to sexual battery and felony child abuse. Watkins entered these guilty pleas in the midst of his criminal trial for raping a sixteen-month-old girl. While Watkins told the judge at his plea hearing that he was voluntarily pleading guilty and was satisfied with his trial lawyer, he now claims his attorney and family coerced him to plead guilty to avoid a life sentence. Watkins also now insists he has new evidence that another man was present in the…