Buskuehl v. State

719 S.W.2d 504, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4937
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided November 12, 1986·No. No. 50941·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

KAROHL, Judge.

Movant appeals denial of post-conviction relief based on claims of ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and on direct appeal in defense of the charge of Assault First Degree as a violation of § 565.050 RSMo 1978. After a hearing the motion court denied relief on the basis of comprehensive findings of fact and conclusions of law. The direct appeal was decided in State v. Buskuehl, 626 S.W.2d 651 (Mo.App.1981).

Appellant’s rule 27.26 motion alleges ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failure to request submission or object to failure to submit lesser included offenses of Assault Second and Third Degree and to preserve the error for appeal. On the same ground it alleges appellant counsel [505] failed to preserve this issue in the brief on direct appeal. It also alleges that after this court considered the instruction failure on lesser offenses as a matter of plain error under Rule 29.12 and issued an opinion which reversed and remanded for new trial, movant’s appellate counsel provoked reconsideration which resulted in a second opinion affirming conviction. Although the instruction issue is a common element of these claims the motion grounds rely on different facts at each level. Accordingly, we first measure the performance of counsel at trial by the standards announced in Seales v. State, 580 S.W.2d 733, 736 (Mo. banc 1979), and Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Both cases require proof of: 1) failure of counsel to exercise the customary skill and diligence of a reasonably competent attorney under similar circumstances so as to fulfill the guarantee of the Sixth Amendment; and, 2) resulting prejudice.

The trial court initiated a consideration of submission of lesser included charges of second and third degree assault. Trial counsel testified in the motion hearing that he discussed with defendant, now mov-ant, the merits and hazards of tendering the instructions. He said, “[ajfter thinking about it for quite some time we agreed on the strategy of only requesting assault first in the hopes of getting a ‘not guilty’ on that verdict and not having to accept a compromise verdict on a lesser offense. Because if he was found not guilty of assault first he would be found not guilty of all offenses if the lessers had not been given”. If there was error in this decision it was not trial court error. Nor was it an invitation to provoke trial court error. It was simply a conscious and reasoned decision of trial counsel with the consent of his client to exclude the possibility of a compromise verdict on a lesser charge. This strategy is neither uncommon nor is it ineffective assistance of counsel. We have no doubt that it is a successful tactic in some cases. Movant’s brief in the present case recognizes and accepts this view. Movant argues that an admission by trial counsel, made after trial, that counsel was not prepared at trial to argue legal grounds to convince the trial court to submit instructions on lesser charges establishes ineffective assistance of counsel. We find such statement meaningless on the present issue because of the reasoned decision not to seek such instructions. There was no reason to prepare for an argument in support of instructions which defendant chose to resist. A decision based on competent trial strategy will not support a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Love v. State, 670 S.W.2d 499, 502 (Mo. banc 1984).

Before considering the claim related to the direct appeal it is helpful to consider the unusual circumstances of the issuance of two appellate opinions in one case which reach opposite results. On July 28, 1981, a division of this court rendered a decision granting defendant a new trial. On September 29, 1981, that opinion was withdrawn on the courts’ own motion. On November 10, 1981, the reported opinion was issued affirming the conviction. On January 11, 1982, our mandate to the trial court based on the November 10, 1981, opinion was issued.

We find no statute or rule which mentions our mandate. We find no authority which limits the authority of this court to withdraw an opinion on it’s own motion prior to the issuance of a mandate. We find no authority which attaches finality to any opinion of this court prior to mandate. There is no rule for Appellate Court’s comparable to Rule 75.01 for trial courts. We conclude that after jurisdiction is vested in this court by a Notice of Appeal we retain jurisdiction at least until the case is ordered transferred to the Supreme Court or until our mandate is issued.

Movant’s second point claims ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal because his appellate counsel visited the judge who wrote the July 28, 1981, opinion. Counsel requested a revision in the opinion by withdrawing a statement in the opinion that defendant’s trial counsel deliberately invited error resulting in a wasteful loss of [506] judicial time because the instruction error which required remand was not preserved. This observation was justified only because the record on direct appeal did not disclose the true motive of defendant and his trial counsel to employ an “all or nothing” strategy. The explanation was strategy and not intention to invite error.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Buskuehl v. State, 719 S.W.2d 504, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4937 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).

719 S.W.2d 504 (Buskuehl v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State of New Hampshire v. Sean Brown
166 N.H. 520 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 2014)
Mallett v. State
769 S.W.2d 77 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1989)
Ball v. State
768 S.W.2d 631 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1989)