Summary
In Fox v. State, 112 Fla. 104, 150 So. 228, the defendant filed a plea of nolo contendere which he subsequently moved to withdraw.
Summary of this case from Peel v. StateOpinion
Opinion Filed September 25, 1933.
A writ of error to the Criminal Court of Record for Dade County, E. C. Collins, Judge.
George M. Okell, for Plaintiff in Error;
Cary D. Landis, Attorney General, and Roy Campbell, Assistant, for the State.
To an information charging a felony, the accused, apparently without understanding its import, offered a plea of nolo contendere, upon which a judgment of conviction and sentence to the State Prison was rendered. It does not appear that the accused was represented by counsel when the plea was filed. A motion to vacate the judgment and for leave to withdraw the plea of nolo contendere was supported by an affidavit of the accused that he had "never heard before of the word nolo contendere and did not know or understand its meaning, but was under the impression and believed that when he entered a plea that he was entering a plea of not guilty and that he did not "intend to plead guilty," but is innocent. The motion was denied. This was harmful error. Judgment reversed.
DAVIS, C. J., and WHITFIELD, BROWN and BUFORD, J. J., concur.