William O. Douglas

“ Petitioner Boykin, on the other hand, today has his Alabama conviction reversed because of exactly the same omission, even though he too 'may * * * resort to appropriate post-conviction remedies to attack his plea's voluntariness' and thus 'is not without a remedy to correct constitutional defects in his conviction.' In short, I find it utterly impossible to square today's holding with what the Court has so recently done. ”

“ See Ala.Code, Tit. 14, § 415 (1958) ; Tit. 15, § 277. That proceeding occurred some two months after petitioner pleaded guilty. During that period, petitioner made no attempt to withdraw his plea. Petitioner was present in court with his attorney when the witnesses were examined. Petitioner heard the judge state the elements of common-law robbery and heard him announce that petitioner had pleaded guilty to that offense and might be sentenced to death. Again, petitioner made no effort to withdraw his plea. ”

“ Rhay, 68 Wash.2d 601, 605, 414 P.2d 601, 604 (1966) .↑ 'A majority of criminal convictions are obtained after a plea of guilty. If these convictions are to be insulated from attack, the trial court is best advised to conduct an on the record examination of the defendant which should include, inter alia, an attempt to satisfy itself that the defendant understands the nature of the charges, his right to a jury trial, the acts sufficient to constitute the offenses for which he is charged and the permissible range of sentences.' Commonwealth ex rel. ”

“ When the judge discharges that function, he leaves a record adequate for any review that may be later sought [6] (Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U.S. 157, 173, 82 S.Ct. 248, 256, 7 L.Ed.2d 207; Specht v. Patterson, 386 U.S. 605, 610, 87 S.Ct. 1209, 1212, 18 L.Ed.2d 326) , and forestalls the spin-off of collateral proceedings that seek to probe murky memories. ”