Donald Herb Johnson v. Laura Plappert -Eastern District of Kentucky at Pikeville
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Donald Herb Johnson’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition challenging his Kentucky death sentence. The court held that the Kentucky Supreme Court reasonably rejected Johnson’s claims that his guilty plea was unknowing under Boykin and that the sentencing judge failed to consider all mitigating evidence, and therefore relief was barred by AEDPA.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether Boykin v. Alabama requires the record to show an affirmative, specific waiver of each of the three enumerated trial rights (jury trial, confrontation, and privilege against self-incrimination) before a guilty plea may be deemed knowing and voluntary, or whether a showing of the defendant’s general awareness that he is waiving a trial and its attendant rights is sufficient.
Circuit Positions
General-awareness approach – record need only show defendant understood he was waiving a trial; no separate enumeration of each right required.
Specific-rights approach – record must affirmatively demonstrate defendant’s knowledge and waiver of each Boykin right (jury, confrontation, self-incrimination).
Conflict Summary
Several circuits hold that Boykin’s ‘affirmative showing’ requirement is satisfied if the record demonstrates a defendant’s general understanding that pleading guilty waives a trial, without the court’s expressly advising the defendant of each individual right. Other decisions read Boykin more strictly, requiring an on-the-record indication that the defendant actually knew and waived each specific constitutional right mentioned in Boykin. The Sixth Circuit in this opinion aligns with the more permissive view, while earlier Sixth Circuit authority (Pitts) endorsed the stricter approach, illustrating an intra- and inter-circuit divide.