Delivery of a Controlled Substance

Ex parte Broadway was a case in 2009 where the applicant for Habeas Corpus pled guilty to delivery of a controlled substance and retaliation and true to enhancement paragraphs for prior convictions. Before applicant entered his plea. the judge reviewed the options: “Jury trial or you could take a plea bargain, which is a minimum of 25 years in prison or do an open plea which would allow me to consider giving some kind of drug treatment on probation.”

Applicant declined the plea bargain and chose to enter an open plea with the hope that the judge would place him on deferred adjudication community supervision with drug treatment. To secure the judge’s ability to consider deferred adjudication, applicant waived his right to a jury trial. After reminding Applicant that no plea bargain existed, the judge assessed punishment at 25 years’ imprisonment. In his applications for writs of habeas corpus, applicant alleged ineffective assistance of counsel on the grounds that his attorneys failed to inform him of his right to appeal the sentence and that they allowed him to sign a waiver of appeal before being sentenced.

The Court of Appeals found that the defendant knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently waived his entire appeal as part of the plea even when sentencing was not agreed upon where consideration is given by the State for that waiver. He appropriately waived his right to appeal because (1) his waiver was the result of a bargain, and (2) he knew the consequences of the waiver.