On February 10, 1947, McCloud and several others were arrested. Detained from Feb. 10 to Feb. 18, McCloud was then remanded to jail after a preliminary hearing before a magistrate. On April 21, he pleaded guilty to several counts of armed robbery and assault, and was sentenced to 15 to 35 years in jail.

In 1960, McCloud was released on parole and returned to jail in 1961. In 1965, McCloud filed a writ of habeas corpus in state court, which was dismissed without a hearing.

McCloud then filed a federal writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. McCloud alleged detention in various police stations, where he was subjected to long interrogations, sleep deprivation, improper food and beatings, and kept incommunicado for eight days. he also alleges a coerced confession based on a promise of a lenient sentence because of his youth and lack of previous serious crimes on his record.

McCloud claims that as a 19-year-old with the intelligence of a "middle-grade moron" and no prior criminal record, his sentence should be overruled. McCloud argues that "he was not questioned by the court as to his knowledge of the charges against him, his understanding of his plea, his willingness to plea nor about any threats, coercion . . .or reasons, in regard to the circumstances surrounding the entering and accepting of the plea."

Assuming the confession was coerced, McCloud did not test the admissibility of the confession because he pled guilty, and the transcript of the 1947 case did not disclose the actual entry of the guilty plea, but was included in the indictments only, is this a knowing and valid confession eighteen years after the fact?

Was McCloud's guilty plea valid?

What factors would you analyze in making your decision? How would you rule?

Robert Goldman

Emory University School of Law

Answer

The test is totality of the circumstances.

The Court of Appeals, Forman, Circuit Judge, held that the record established that accused's pleas of guilty were voluntary and were not induced by allegedly coerced confession.

See McCloud v. Rundle, 402 F.2d 853 (3rd Cir. 1968).