Johnson v. Commonwealth

Opinion of the Court

by Justice NOBLE.

The Appellant, Donald Herb Johnson, has collaterally attacked his murder conviction and death sentence, alleging that his unconditional, “blind” guilty plea was coerced in two ways. He claims first that his guilty plea was induced by a secret deal (or his belief in the existence of a secret deal) in which the trial judge indicated that he would not sentence Johnson to death if he entered a guilty plea. He also claims that his plea was coerced by his lawyer’s threat to withdraw from the representation if Johnson did not enter a guilty plea. The trial court…