Opinion
NO. 2020-KH-0270
10-14-2020
STATE OF LOUISIANA v. JAMES BOYD COLEMAN
ON SUPERVISORY WRIT TO THE THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT, PARISH OF LINCOLN CRAIN, J., concurring.
Defendant pled nolo contendere to the subject offense, which is equivalent to an admission of guilt and is treated as a guilty plea. See La. Code Crim. Pro. art. 552(4); State v. Gordon, 04-0633 (La. App. 1 Cir. 10/29/04), 896 So. 2d 1053, 1061, writ denied, 04-3144 (La. 4/1/05), 897 So. 2d 600. An unqualified plea of guilty or nolo contendere waives all non-jurisdictional defects and precludes their review by appeal or post-conviction relief. See State v. Crosby, 338 So. 2d 584, 588 (La. 1976). Except for allegations directed at the knowing, voluntary, and intelligent nature of the plea, all other objections are waived and not reviewable. These threshold questions should be addressed at the outset by trial courts when considering a petition for post-conviction relief filed by a party who pled guilty. Here, defendant's allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel do not concern the validity of his plea and raise no jurisdictional defects in the proceeding. For those reasons, the petition is not subject to further judicial review and was properly denied.