Commonwealth v. Sayyid

The defendant, who is intellectually disabled, appeals from the denial, after an evidentiary hearing, of his claim that his attorney’s stipulation to violation of conditions of probation contravened his due process rights. This appeal presents the questions whether, in a probation revocation proceeding, a stipulation to probation violations resulting in waiver of a hearing must be knowing and voluntary and whether a judge is under an obligation to directly address the defendant to ascertain that the waiver was knowing and voluntary. We conclude that a defendant’s agreement to waive a…