Lono v. State

Several questions are raised by appellant Kenneth Lono in this appeal which resulted from a circuit court order denying appellant’s petition for post-conviction relief under Rule 40, Hawaii Rules of Penal Procedure.

Appellant’s petition had requested the circuit court to set aside his pleas of guilty made in 1965 to two counts of murder for which he was given a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole. His petition claimed that at the time he entered his guilty pleas, he was ignorant as he was never told that murder in the first degree carried a mandatory sentence of life…