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Walker v. The State

Denial of New Trial Upheld for Convicted Rapist Who Refused Pre-Trial Plea

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A jury convicted Harden Walker of rape and false imprisonment. In Walker v. State, 341 Ga. App. 742, 745-47 (2) (801 SE2d 621) (2017), this Court affirmed Walker’s convictions but vacated the trial court’s ruling on Walker’s claim for ineffective assistance of counsel. On remand, the trial court again denied his motion for a new trial. Walker now appeals from that ruling. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.In his motion for new trial, Walker claimed that his trial counsel failed to adequately advise him regarding a pre-trial plea deal offered by the State. Id. at 745 (2). As this Court’s prior opinion in this case outlined,   During pretrial plea negotiations, the State offered to recommend to the trial court that Walker serve 20 years in prison in exchange for his guilty plea to the charged offenses of rape and false imprisonment. It is undisputed that, when the State made the plea offer, both the prosecutor and Walker’s trial counsel erroneously believed that 20 years was the maximum sentence that Walker could receive on the rape charge, when, in fact, he could receive a life sentence. Based on counsel’s erroneous advice that 20 years was the maximum rape sentence, Walker rejected the plea offer, went to trial, was convicted on both charges, and received a sentence of life imprisonment for rape plus five years for false imprisonment. Walker testified at the hearing on the new trial motion that trial counsel told him about the State’s 20year plea offer and that “more than likely” he would have taken the plea offer if trial counsel had advised him that the maximum sentence for rape was life imprisonment. Although Walker testified that he did not learn about the possibility of life imprisonment until sentencing, trial counsel testified that, just prior to opening statements, the prosecutor told her that the maximum sentence for the rape charge was life imprisonment and that Walker was also made aware at that time that the maximum sentence was life.

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