Arbuckle v. Turner

MEMORANDUM DECISION

CHRISTENSEN, District Judge.

Petitioners are confined in the Utah State Prison and seek habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (Supp. Pam.1967). State remedies have been exhausted.

These cases present the question of the extent to which Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) is retrospective in effect.

The necessity that a defendant’s guilty plea be voluntary and informed was a fundamental, constitutional principle prior to the Boykin decision. E. g., Machibroda v. United States, 368 U.S. 487, 493, 82 S.Ct. 510, 7 L.Ed.2d 473 (1962)…