Opinion
March 8, 1971.
June 30, 1971.
Criminal Law — Practice — Petition for post-conviction relief — Averments — Guilty plea unlawfully induced — Necessity of hearing.
Before WRIGHT, P.J., WATKINS, MONTGOMERY, JACOBS, HOFFMAN, SPAULDING, and CERCONE, JJ.
Appeal, No. 79, March T., 1971, from order of Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, Jan. T., 1968, Nos. 3, 4, 23, and 24 (O. T.) and Jan. T., 1968, No. 120 (Q.S.), in case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. John Roland Jackson. Order affirmed.
Petition for post-conviction relief.
Order entered dismissing petition, opinion by LIPSITT, J. Defendant appealed.
James R. Clippinger, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.
Jerome T. Foerster, Assistant District Attorney, and LeRoy S. Zimmerman, District Attorney, for Commonwealth, appellee.
SPAULDING, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which HOFFMAN, J., joined.
Submitted March 8, 1971.
Order affirmed.
I respectfully dissent.
While in prison, appellant filed a petition pursuant to the Post Conviction Hearing Act, Act of January 25, 1966, P.L. (1965) 1580, 19 P.S. 1180-1 et seq. (Supp. 1970). His petition alleged, inter alia, that his guilty plea was unlawfully induced. On November 12, 1970, the Court of Quarter Sessions of Dauphin County dismissed the petition without a hearing.
I believe appellant's petition alleged sufficient facts concerning the circumstances of his plea to warrant a hearing. Post Conviction Hearing Act, supra, § 9; Commonwealth v. Johnson, 431 Pa. 522, 246 A.2d 345 (1968).
HOFFMAN, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.