Parker v. Warden of Maryland House of Correction

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In this application for leave to appeal from a denial of post conviction relief, it appears that the applicant had been indicted in 1957, jointly with one Louis Edward Cook, on three separate and distinct charges of daytime burglary (Code (1957) Art. 27, sec. 32). Prior to indictment he had been taken before a trial magistrate on December 3, 1957, where he freely admitted his guilt as to two of the charges. At arraignment on December 19, 1957, he pleaded guilty to the first count of each indictment.

There is nothing to support his present contention that he did not intend to plead guilty to the first counts. Indeed, he does not say that he did not understand what was stated in the indictments furnished him, or what was read to him, but says he was suffering from the effects of alcoholism at the time of his original arrest. He did not ask the trial court to appoint counsel, and the trial court did not do so. He was a literate man, thirty-two years of age, a qualified electrician with some years of army service. ⁶⁰⁰ The trial court sentenced him to two years on each count, to run consecutively.

We find nothing in the record to show a denial of constitutional right. The other points raised by the applicant are without merit for the reasons stated by Judge Tucker in the court below.