Stone v. State

George Rose Smith, Justice.

This is a petition for postconviction relief under Criminal Procedure Rule 1. The petitioner, charged with first degree rape (then a capital offense), entered a negotiated plea of guilty to second degree rape and was sentenced to confinement for 21 years. He now asserts that his plea of guilty was motivated by fear, in that his court-appointed counsel told him that if he resisted the charge of first degree rape he would probably receive the death sentence. The trial judge denied the petition without an evidentiary hearing, holding, under Rule 1 (C), that the record…