White v. White

602 F. Supp. 173, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21025
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedDecember 21, 1984
Docket83-0626-CV-W-9
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 602 F. Supp. 173 (White v. White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White v. White, 602 F. Supp. 173, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21025 (W.D. Mo. 1984).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

BARTLETT, District Judge.

Petitioner has filed pro se a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 chai *175 lenging his conviction on two counts of selling marijuana. Petitioner raises four issues as grounds for habeas corpus relief: 1) ineffective assistance of counsel; 2) violations of petitioner’s due process rights; 3) double jeopardy resulting from amendment of petitioner’s sentence; and 4) conviction despite insufficient evidence to rebut entrapment defense.

Exhaustion

In response to the petition, respondent concedes that petitioner has exhausted available state post-conviction remedies on all issues except for petitioner’s allegation that he was denied the right to file a motion for new trial. Petitioner admits that this issue has not been exhausted. Petitioner requests that the Court delete this issue and consider only the remaining exhausted issues. Therefore, the allegation that petitioner was denied the right to file a motion for a new trial will be severed and dismissed without prejudice.

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Petitioner argued in state court and here that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because he was required by the trial court to go to trial with a lawyer, whom the petitioner did not want to represent him and who did not want to represent petitioner. Also, petitioner asserted that the Public Defender was overworked and, therefore, failed to exercise the customary skill and diligence that a competent attorney would perform under similar circumstances and, as a result, his defense was prejudiced.

After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied relief. On appeal the Missouri Court of Appeals rejected petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel argument:

Defense counsel on this appeal with commendable zeal has made a vigorous attempt to show that the public defender was overworked and was consequently unable to and did not devote the necessary time and effort to the preparation and presentation of the defense in this case. Testimony with respect to this issue was given by defendant, the public defender and the public defender’s investigator. All of this testimony, together with the skillful argument made by defense counsel on this appeal, have been carefully considered, but we remain unpersuaded that the defendant has carried the burden of proving that the public defender failed to provide effective assistance of counsel within the prescription of Seales v. State, 580 S.W.2d 733 (Mo. banc 1979). A detailed review of the evidence on this point would have no precedential value and would serve no other useful purpose.

State of Missouri v. White, 646 S.W.2d 804, 806 (Mo.App.1983).

Seales adopted the test stated in Witham v. Mabry, 596 F.2d 293 (8th Cir.1979), for determining whether a defendant had received the effective assistance of counsel. To establish that an attorney’s performance was constitutionally deficient, a criminal defendant must show “ ‘that his attorney failed to exercise the customary skill and diligence that a reasonably competent attorney would perform under similar circumstances, and that he was prejudiced thereby.’ ” Id. at 298 (quoting United States v. Hood, 593 F.2d 293 (8th Cir.1979)).

The Missouri Court of Appeals focused exclusively on that part of petitioner’s argument that the overworked Public Defender failed to skillfully represent petitioner. Petitioner’s allegation that he was improperly forced to trial with counsel after an irreconcilable conflict had developed was not discussed.

In Strickland v. Washington, _ U.S. _, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2063, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Supreme Court stated that:

The Sixth Amendment recognizes the right to the assistance of counsel because it envisions counsel’s playing a role that is critical to the ability of the adversarial system to produce just results. An accused is entitled to be assisted by an attorney, whether retained or appointed, who plays the role necessary to ensure that the trial is fair.

*176 As a result, the Supreme Court “has recognized that ‘the right to counsel is the right to effective assistance of counsel.’ ” Id., 104 S.Ct. at 2064 (quoting McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 n. 14, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 1449 n. 14, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970)).

To prevail on a claim that the performance of counsel was so defective as to require reversal of a conviction, a criminal defendant must show that “counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the ‘counsel’ guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment ...” and “that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.” Strickland, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.

If the ineffectiveness claim focuses on the state’s failure to furnish an attorney at all or on the state’s failure to give relief from a demonstrably defective attorney-client relationship, a criminal defendant need not show prejudice, i.e., that the failure to provide counsel or that the defect in the relationship was so serious that the defendant was actually deprived of a fair trial. Strickland, 104 S.Ct. at 2067. For instance, if a criminal defendant shows that his counsel actively represented conflicting interests and the conflict of interest actively affected the adequacy of representation, then the defendant “need not demonstrate prejudice in order to obtain relief.” Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 350, 100 S.Ct. 1708, 1719, 64 L.Ed.2d 333 (1980). Prejudice is presumed because “[i]n those circumstances, counsel breaches the duty of loyalty, perhaps the most basic of counsel’s duties.” Strickland, 104 S.Ct. at 2067.

Similarly, “an accused who is forced to stand trial with the assistance of appointed counsel with whom he has become embroiled in an irreconcilable conflict is denied effective assistance of counsel. The trial court, when confronted by such an allegation, has an obligation to inquire thoroughly into the factual basis of the defendant’s dissatisfaction.” United States v. Hart, 557 F.2d 162, 163 (8th Cir.1977) (citation omitted). If an attorney and a client have an irreconcilable conflict, essential attributes of a healthy attorney-client relationship are non-existent.

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Bluebook (online)
602 F. Supp. 173, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21025, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-white-mowd-1984.