Victor Ponce v. State of Indiana

RUCKER, Justice.

Victor Ponce is a non-native English speaker who pleaded guilty under terms of an agreement. He appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief essentially contending that the Spanish translation of the rights he was waiving by entering the plea was so inaccurate his plea of guilty was not entered knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. We agree and reverse the judgment of the post-conviction court.

Background

Over the last few decades, language diversity across the country has grown rapidly and non-English languages increasingly play a “continuing and growing…