54 results for 'cat:"Habeas" AND cat:"Ineffective Assistance"'.
J. Powell denies the prisoner's motion for release due to ineffective counsel. The prison was convicted of several crimes stemming from a home-invasion robbery with aggravated malicious wounding at his wife's boss's house. The prisoner argues his counsel should have argued for insanity rather than involuntary intoxication. Still, the record establishes that trial counsel made a thorough investigation of the law and facts and chose a course of action that they believed had the best chance of success. Affirmed.
Court: Virginia Supreme Court, Judge: Powell, Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 211114 , Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Robbery
[Consolidated.] J. Murphy finds the lower court properly denied the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Defense counsel's failure to initiate plea negotiations before his trial on charges that stemmed from a bank robbery did not prejudice him or constitute ineffective assistance. Furthermore, the attorney's failure to object to several questions directed at the inmate's mother during cross-examination and a mistake during closing arguments in which he misstated the inmate's height are insufficient to be considered ineffective assistance based on the overwhelming evidence of the inmate's guilt. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Murphy, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: 22-3386, Categories: Evidence, habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. Moll finds the lower court properly rejected the inmate's petition for a writ of a habeas corpus because he failed to prove he was prejudiced by his attorneys' failure to reopen plea negotiations after one of the charges against him was removed from the indictment, as he admitted he was unsure whether he would have accepted any plea offers. Meanwhile, the ineffective assistance claim related to the attorney's cross-examination of the victim also fail because the attorney's decision to limit his questioning was part of a reasonable strategy to limit the victim's time on the stand, while he still highlighted inconsistencies in her testimony to reduce her credibility. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Moll, Filed On: December 8, 2023, Case #: AC45273, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender
J. Kern finds that a habeas court improperly granted relief for ineffective assistance of counsel stemming from a jury conviction of first-degree
manslaughter for the death of a sixteen-month-old child. While defense counsel’s opening statement included an "imprecise remark, not attributable to trial strategy," the mistake did not deprive defendant of a fair trial. Reversed.
Court: South Dakota Supreme Court, Judge: Kern , Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: 2023SD65, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Alvord finds the lower court properly denied the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The failure by the inmate's attorney to object to evidence of uncharged misconduct during his trial on assault charges did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, as the proof was corroborated by other witness testimony and the decision was part of a sound trial strategy to avoid numerous objections. Additionally, the failure to call an expert witness to rebut cell phone location evidence was not ineffective assistance because there was other, overwhelming evidence to convict defendant and the location evidence was used only to place the inmate near the scene of the crime, not in an exact location. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Alvord, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: AC45675, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Assault
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J. Salter determined that defendant could not relitigate the efficacy of a self-defense claim in habeas corpus proceeding for a matter in which defendant is serving a life sentence in prison after he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Defendant was also unable to support claims that he was prejudiced during trial and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. Affirmed.
Court: South Dakota Supreme Court, Judge: Salter, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 2023SD63, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Manslaughter
J. Prescott finds the lower court properly dismissed the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus on ineffective assistance claims. Although police began downloading data from his cell phone before a judge signed their search warrant, none of the data was examined prior to the issue of the warrant, while police also had multiple avenues to obtain calls and texts between the inmate and his co-conspirator, all of which would have rendered any motion to suppress futile. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Prescott, Filed On: November 17, 2023, Case #: AC45712, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Bear finds the lower court properly granted the petitioner's request for a writ of habeas corpus on ineffective assistance claims. The advice given by his attorney that sentences under one year would not affect his immigration status was patently false and the attorney should have been aware convictions on crimes of "moral turpitude" rendered the petitioner removable from the U.S. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bear, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: AC45482, Categories: habeas, Immigration, ineffective Assistance
J. Bear finds the lower court properly denied defendant's petition for habeas relief. While defendant's kidnapping conviction was based primarily on identification evidence from the victim, the failure by his attorney to call an identification expert witness did not constitute ineffective assistance. The attorney's focus on the victim's inability to recall various details from the abduction and his intoxication at the time of the crime was a sound and reasonable strategy. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bear, Filed On: November 3, 2023, Case #: AC45756, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Kidnapping
J. Seeley finds the lower court properly denied the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus because his claims of ineffective assistance related to the state's plea offer before a murder trial were meritless. The inmate's attorney properly explained the elements of the crimes with which he was charged and the state's burden of proof. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Seeley, Filed On: October 13, 2023, Case #: AC45795, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Brennan finds that the lower court improperly denied defendant's habeas petition. Defendant established that his attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel, and he was likely prejudiced by his attorney's failure to provide mitigation evidence as he received a maximum sentence despite his mental health history. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: 20-3273, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. McBride finds that the lower court improperly dismissed defendant's postconviction petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Counsel was arguably deficient in failing to move to exclude the hearsay statements of two testifying detectives, which were used by the state as evidence of defendant's guilt. Reversed.
Court: Illinois Appellate Court, Judge: McBride, Filed On: September 12, 2023, Case #: 210642, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Robbery
J. Seeley finds the lower court properly dismissed an inmate's habeas petition on ineffective assistance of counsel claims. While defense counsel should have objected to the admission of evidence about his co-conspirators' sexual assault of the victim of their robbery, a crime with which the inmate was never charged, the jury's decision to acquit him on some charges and the overwhelming evidence of his guilt on others prevented him from proving prejudice. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Seeley, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: AC45321, Categories: Burglary, habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. Hodge finds the superior court improperly denied defendant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus arriving seven years after an amended judgment increased his sentence for second-degree murder from 10 years to 20 years, running consecutively with a separate 10-year sentence for voluntarily manslaughter. Defendant has made a case for ineffective assistance of counsel based on his lawyer's failure to respond to prosecutors' motion to increase defendant's sentence for around nine months before the motion was granted, and the superior court was wrong to determine there was no reasonable probability that the outcome of defendant's proceeding would have been different if defendant's lawyer had opposed the motion. Because the relief sought by the state to increase defendant's sentence also violates the Fifth Amendment's double jeopardy clause, defendant's habeas petition is granted, and the case is remanded to the superior court to vacate the order modifying his sentence and reinstate his original sentence.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: 2023 VI 10, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Double Jeopardy
J. Seeley finds the lower court properly dismissed the inmate's habeas petition. The possibility of undermining the defense's strategy of proving several witnesses intentionally misidentified the inmate as the shooter gave his attorney a legitimate reason not to call a witness who was allegedly willing to testify she saw "two masked men" commit the murder instead of the inmate. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Seeley, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: AC45841, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Jordan finds that the district court properly denied defendant's petition for habeas relief from his death sentence for murder. Defendant refused to follow through with his end of a plea agreement by testifying against his co-defendant. Defendant failed to show that he would have honored the plea agreement if his attorneys had done more to convince him to testify. Defendant has therefore not shown that he was prejudiced by his counsels' allegedly deficient performance. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Jordan, Filed On: September 6, 2023, Case #: 22-11459, Categories: Death Penalty, habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. Moore finds the death-row inmate's due process rights were violated when the trial court enforced his jury trial waiver at his third sentencing hearing in 2009. The three-judge panel convened to sentence him did not include the same three judges explicitly named in the waiver agreement signed before his initial trial in 1984. Additionally, the inmate is entitled to habeas relief on his ineffective assistance claim regarding his attorney's failure to seek recusal of a judge named on the panel because the judge's role as a prosecutor at a previous point in the case, including cross-examination of witnesses during the presentation of mitigation evidence, rose to the level of impermissible bias and likely violated the inmate's due process rights. Reversed in part.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Moore, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 21-3404, Categories: Death Penalty, habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's habeas petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Defense counsel's performance was "deeply troubling," but the state court found that counsel made a strategic decision to pursue acquittal even when her cross-examinations "were a disaster," and this finding is not unreasonable. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 22-2393, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. D'Auria finds that the lower court erred when it granted the petitioner's request for a writ of habeas corpus on ineffective assistance of counsel claims because a defense attorney is not required to advise a client whether or not to accept a plea offer; rather, the attorney is required to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the prosecution's case, as well as the chances for success at trial, to allow the client to make an informed decision about the plea. Therefore, because the attorney in this case met the aforementioned requirements, he provided effective assistance of counsel and the petitioner was not entitled to a writ of habeas corpus. Reversed.
Court: Connecticut Supreme Court, Judge: D'Auria, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: SC20786, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Plea
J. Wilson finds that the district court improperly denied defendant's habeas petition for relief from his life sentence for murder. The habeas court incorrectly found that defendant would not have accepted a mid-trial plea offer of 30 years in prison based on his prior rejection of a plea offer for a life sentence with the possibility of parole. The state habeas court also incorrectly found that the trial court would not have accepted the 30-year plea deal because defendant maintained that he was innocent. Defendant was entitled to maintain his innocence. The case is remanded for an evidentiary hearing related to defendant's attorney-client relationship with his counsel, their communication, and the plea offer. Vacated.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 21-13756, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Plea
[Consolidated.] J. Bethel finds that the habeas court improperly vacated defendant's death sentence for murder based on a finding that defendant's trial counsel ineffectively presented evidence of defendant's alleged intellectual disability in the sentencing phase. The allegedly deficient performance of defendant's counsel was unlikely to have impacted the outcome in either phase of the trial. New evidence of defendant's intellectual functioning would probably not have caused the jury to impose a lesser sentence. However, the habeas court's final order failed to provide adequate findings of fact to allow for the resolution of some ineffective assistance claims raised by defendant related to allegedly mitigating evidence. The case is remanded to the habeas court. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: S23A0260, Categories: Death Penalty, habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. Bright finds the lower court properly denied the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The attorney's decision to present a theory of self-defense to the jury even after the inmate testified he shot the gun accidentally was not unreasonable. The inmate also testified he was scared for his life in the lead-up to the shooting, which was sufficient to support his claim of self-defense. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bright, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: AC45412, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Self Defense
J. Cradle finds the lower court properly dismissed the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. His ineffective assistance of counsel claims related to DNA evidence obtained from tissues did not prove any prejudicial error, given the tissues were unconnected to the assault for which he was convicted and did not bolster his theory of mistaken identity. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cradle, Filed On: May 19, 2023, Case #: AC44979, Categories: Dna, habeas, ineffective Assistance
J. Flynn finds the lower court erroneously determined the performance of the inmate's attorney during sentencing did not fall below a reasonable standard of care, as the mental health history of the inmate required a thorough investigation for mitigation evidence. Although the prosecution agreed not to dispute the inmate's mental health during sentencing, this does not equate to adequate performance on behalf of the attorney, who was aware of several mental health issues and should have conducted a complete investigation and presented any mitigating evidence to the trial court before sentencing. Reversed in part.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Flynn, Filed On: May 19, 2023, Case #: AC44160, Categories: habeas, ineffective Assistance, Sentencing