Childers v. State

At the September 1971 term of the Court of General Sessions for Greenwood County, the appellant Childers entered pleas of guilty to, charges of rape and burglary and was sentenced to a term of eighteen years for each offense, the sentences to run concurrently. The trial judge accepted the guilty pleas “with a recommendation of mercy unto the court” just as if Code Sec. 17-553.4 of the 1962 Code of Laws had not been declared unconstitutional by this Court in State v. Harper, 251 S. C. 379, 162 S. E. (2d) 712 (1968).

Childers subsequently sought post-conviction relief asserting, inter alia, that…