(Continued from page 22)

• Briley Piper admitted to his role in the March 2000 killing of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage near Spearfish. His attorney, Steve Miller, said Piper pleaded guilty because he believed if he chose a jury trial, a jury would also have to sentence him. A lower court judge confirmed that misconception, even though Piper had the option of being tried by a jury and sentenced by a judge.
• "We're not just talking about a jury waiver here," Miller said. "We're talking about the entire decision as to whether go to trial on the merits or not."
• Paul Swedlund, assistant attorney general, said if Piper understood that a hung jury was his ticket to a life sentence, he would have wanted a jury trial to ensure a jury sentencing. But Piper wanted a court sentencing, he said.
• "Feigning remorse to a dispassionate sentencing court was the best card that Piper had to play, and pleading to that same sentencing judge was an indispensable part of that sentencing," Swedlund said.
• Swedlund said it's not incumbent on the court to correct defense strategies, an argument challenged by Justice Glen Severson.
• "That may be true, but here we're looking at the voluntariness of a plea, which is due process," Severson said.
• Piper and Elijah Page of Athens, Texas, both pleaded guilty to the slaying in 2001 and were sentenced to death by a judge. Their lawyers later said they believed Piper and Page had a better chance of avoiding the death penalty if the judge sentenced them because a jury would be swayed by the brutal nature of the crime.
• Piper appealed, and the state Supreme Court eventually overturned his death sentence by ruling that a jury, not a judge, should decide his fate.
• Justice John Konenkamp said the high court recognized the bad advice in that previous ruling and dealt with the issue.
• "We remedied what he said was the problem and now he's saying, 'No that's not the real problem. The problem is now I want a trial on everything,'" Konenkamp said.
• Miller said Piper should get to enter a new plea, not be shackled to a plea made on bad advice.
• Page voluntarily ended his appeals and was put to death in July 2007 in South Dakota's first execution in 60 years. A third suspect, Darrell Hoadley, of Lead, was convicted by a jury that sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of parole.
• Poage was a friend of Piper, Page and Hoadley. Authorities say that when Poage's mother and sister flew to Florida for a vacation, the three decided to kidnap Poage and steal things from his mother's home. After knocking Poage out and tying him up, the three decided to kill him, authorities say. He was taken to a gulch west of Spearfish, where he was stripped naked and pushed into a stream, prosecutors said.

(Continued on page 24)