Com. v. Floyd, C. No. 84 MDA 2019
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In the case of Commonwealth v. Floyd, the defendant was charged with numerous crimes including possession with intent to deliver.
He was initially represented by the public defender but requested that the PD no longer represent him and that he wished to proceed pro se. He filed a pro se motion to suppress. At the hearing, he represented himself with the PD appearing as stand by counsel. At the hearing, the court did not conduct a waiver of counsel colloquy. The defendant eventually appeared pro se and entered a guilty plea where again, the PD appeared as standby counsel.
At the guilty plea, there was no waiver of counsel colloquy and the defendant was not advised of his appellate rights. When a defendant seeks to waive the right to counsel, the trial court must conduct on the record a full and complete waiver colloquy to determine whether the defendant’s waiver is knowing, voluntary and intelligent. The court must conduct a thorough inquiry into the accused’s appreciation of both the right to counsel and the right to represent oneself at trial, guilty plea hearings, sentencing, and every critical stage of a criminal proceeding. A courts failure to conduct a valid colloquy before allowing a defendant to proceed pro se constitutes reversible error. Additionally, where the court fails to conduct a waiver of counsel colloquy, a defendant’s alleged waiver of counsel is ineffective, even if the court has appointed standby counsel. Here, because the court failed to conduct a waiver of counsel colloquy, the guilty pleas are vacated and the judgment of sentence is vacated.
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