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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI NO. 93-KP-00657-SCT JAMES EDWARDS v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI THIS OPINION IS NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION AND MAY NOT BE CITED, PURSUANT TO M.R.A.P. 35-A DATE OF JUDGMENT: TRIAL JUDGE: COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: 05/24/93 HON. HOWARD Q. DAVIS JR. SUNFLOWER COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT PRO SE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: W. GLENN WATTS CRIMINAL - POST CONVICTION RELIEF AFFIRMED - 3/6/97

NATURE OF THE CASE: DISPOSITION: MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED: MANDATE ISSUED:

BEFORE PRATHER, P.J., ROBERTS AND MILLS, JJ. ROBERTS, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT: James Edwards, ("Edwards"), who is serving concurrent ten year and twenty-five year sentences in the Mississippi Department of Corrections for the sale of cocaine, filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the Circuit Court of Sunflower County, Mississippi. He challenged the effectiveness of his counsel and the voluntariness of his guilty plea which resulted in the twenty-five year sentence. That petition was denied by the circuit court as being without merit, and Edwards perfected appeal to this Court, presenting the following issues for review: I. WHETHER APPELLANT'S PLEA OF GUILTY WAS KNOWINGLY, INTELLIGENTLY AND VOLUNTARILY ENTERED WITHIN THE REALMS OF RULE 3.03 OF THE MISS. UNIF. CRIM. R. CIR. CT. PRAC. AND THE MANDATES OF BOYKINS V. ALABAMA? II. WHETHER APPELLANT WAS DENIED EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL PRIOR TO, DURING AND AFTER THE TAKING OF HIS PLEA OF GUILTY? On January 22, 1990, a Sunflower County grand jury returned two indictments against James Edwards, both for the sale of cocaine. In June 1990 a jury trial was held on one of the indictments,

cause number 10,105. Edwards was found guilty and received a ten year suspended sentence with five years probation. Edwards entered a guilty plea to the second indictment, cause number 10,106, in October, 1990, but on request by the district attorney, pending Edwards' good behavior, sentencing was continued until Edwards completed his probation for the first offense. After breaking the terms of his probation in 1992, Edwards' probation and suspended sentence were revoked, and he was sentenced to serve a concurrent twenty-five year sentence on the October 1990 guilty plea to cause number 10,106. Edwards argues that his guilty plea to cause number 10,106 was not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered because pursuant to Miss. Code Ann.

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