On appeal from the trial court’s grant of the petition for adoption filed by the guardians of K.A.F., which effectively terminated father’s parental rights, father argued that his counsel failed to adequately communicate with him prior to trial, failed to ...

Tagged with: ineffective assistance of counsel Termination of Parental Rights

Defendant filed a motion for post-conviction relief following his conviction for the homicide of his father. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court ruled that trial counsel failed to interview, investigate and subpoena a witness who could have provided testimony ...

Tagged with: ineffective assistance of counsel Post-Conviction Relief

Defendant appealed the denial of his §2255 motion following an evidentiary hearing. On appeal, defendant argued that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a direct appeal and for failing to argue that defendant’s prior state drug convictions did ...

Tagged with: Failure to File Appeal ineffective assistance of counsel §2255 Motion

Petitioner appealed the denial of his habeas petition, alleging that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present mental health evidence and for giving the jury an expert report that included information that petitioner was on death row, ...

Tagged with: death penalty habeas corpus ineffective assistance of counsel

Defendant was charged with knowingly discharging a firearm at an inhabitable structure. The state offered a plea deal to reduce his charge and impose a four-year sentence with no opportunity for probation. Wanting to seek probation, defendant rejected the offer ...

Tagged with: Discharging Firearm at Inhabited Structure ineffective assistance of counsel

What began as a high school bomb-threat case in Missouri’s Bootheel has led to the Supreme Court’s creation on Aug. 13 of a mechanism by which juveniles can claim ineffective assistance of counsel. In the case of D.C.M., a minor ...

Tagged with: ineffective assistance of counsel Juvenile Proceeding Missouri Supreme Court

Defendant was found guilty by a Minnesota state court jury of second-degree sale of drugs and sentenced to 108 months of incarceration. Defendant appealed the denial of his §2254 petition. Where the state court of appeals properly applied the Strickland ...

Tagged with: ineffective assistance of counsel Sale of Drugs

Defendant appealed the denial of his motion alleging ineffective assistance of counsel for trial counsel’s failure to call a corroborating witness and to fully investigate a note that provided clarity as to the target of defendant’s threatening statements. Where the ...

Tagged with: Failure to Investigate and Call Witnesses ineffective assistance of counsel

Defendant appealed from his below-guidelines range sentence, imposed after he pleaded guilty to illegal reentry. On appeal, defendant argued that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that his sentence was substantively unreasonable. Where clams of ineffective assistance of counsel ...

Tagged with: Below-Guidelines Sentence Illegal Reentry ineffective assistance of counsel

Defendant pleaded guilty to bank fraud and the district court sentenced him to a within-guidelines sentence. On appeal, defendant argued that his sentence was substantively unreasonable and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. Where the district court adequately considered ...

Tagged with: Bank Fraud ineffective assistance of counsel Within-Guidelines Sentence

Defendant appealed the denial of his motion alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and conspiracy to launder money. Although the magistrate questioned the factual basis for defendant’s plea to the money-laundering charge, the district ...

Tagged with: Conspiracy to Distribute Failure to Object to Lack of Factual Basis ineffective assistance of counsel