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Lovell v. State11/12/1997
ense be communicated to the defendant as a prerequisite to the valid acceptance of his guilty plea." Priet, 289 Md. at 288, 424 A.2d at 359. Understanding the nature of the offense affords the defendant "a basic understanding of its essential substance, rather than of the specific legal components of the offense to which the plea is tendered." Id. at 288, 424 A.2d at 359-60. Obviously, because recital of the elements of the crime is not required, a contrasting of the elements of the subject crime with those of a related crime is not required.
Harris v. State, 295 Md. 329, 455 A.2d 979 (1983), was a review of a death sentence imposed after the defendant had pled guilty. Id. at 330-31, 455 A.2d at 980. In this Court the defendant contended that his plea was not knowing and voluntary because he intended only to plead to felony murder but the trial court treated the plea as applicable to both modes of committing murder in the first degree. Id. at 334-35, 455 A.2d at 981. We agreed that the record clearly demonstrated that "the appellant did not agree that he committed the murder in a wilful, deliberate and premeditated manner." Id. at 336, 455 A.2d at 983. There was no merit to Harris's contention, however, because the trial judge had "explained the nature of first degree murder and we no doubt that the appellant understood the nature of that offense." Id. (emphasis added). Of significance here is the fact that the trial court in Harris explained the nature of murder in the first degree by explaining the two ways in which it could be committed, one of which was "by proving the killing was wilful, deliberate and premeditated." Id. at 333, 455 A.2d at 981. Here the State relies exclusively on the premeditation alternative that was described in the charging document. The first-degree murder to which Lovell pled is one of those crimes, "the nature of [which] is readily understandable from the crime itself." Priet, 289 Md. at 288, 424 A.2d at 360.
Priet involved three separate cases consolidated for argument. We held:
"'It may be appropriate to presume that in most cases defense counsel routinely explain the nature of the offense in sufficient detail to give the accused notice of what he is being asked to admit.' [Quoting Henderson v. Morgan, 426 U.S. 637, 647, 96 S. Ct. 2253, 2258, 49 L. Ed. 2d 108, 116 (1976)]. In each case, the personal responses of the defendant to the questions asked of him were made of record. In each case, the defendant acknowledged that he understood that he was pleading guilty to the particular offense involved, although in no instance does the record particularize the precise basis of the defendant's claimed knowledge that he understood the nature of the offense. It would, we think, in each of the cases before us, exalt formalism over real substance, far beyond the requirements of due process or [the predecessor to Rule 4-242(c)], to require that the record disclose the reasons for the defendant's belief that he understands the nature of the offense; indeed, such a standard would be wholly impracticable, if not impossible of compliance. The test, as we have indicated, is whether, considering the record as a whole, the trial judge could fairly determine that the defendant understood the nature of the charge to which he pleaded guilty."
Priet, 289 Md. at 290-91, 424 A.2d at 361.
In the instant matter Lovell was represented by one of Maryland's most experienced attorneys in defending capital cases. The plea was entered pursuant to a written plea agreement which incorporated an agreed statement of facts that supported the plea. Defense counsel represented to the circuit court that he had met between fifteen to twenty times with Lovell and ha
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