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Blackwell v. State2/12/2003
I. Factual Background
A jury in the Madison County Circuit Court found the petitioner guilty of the second degree murder of Craig Williams. Williams' death resulted from a fight between the two men at the Planet Rock bar. On December 29, 1998, this court affirmed the petitioner's conviction and our supreme court denied permission to appeal on September 13, 1999. State v. Benjamin Blackwell, Jr., No. 02C01-9712-CC-00469, 1998 WL 902597 (Tenn. Crim. App. at Jackson, Dec. 29, 1998). Subsequently, the petitioner timely filed a petition for post-conviction relief, which petition the post-conviction court denied. On appeal, the petitioner contends that trial counsel were ineffective in the following ways: (1) failure to pursue an alleged Batson violation and preserve such issue in a motion for new trial; (2) failure to strike a juror; (3) failure to develop or formulate reasonable trial strategy; (4) failure to prepare the petitioner to testify at trial; and (5) failure to preserve a jury instruction issue for direct appeal. Additionally, the petitioner alleged that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to comply with Tenn. R. App. P. 14 "in seeking the court's review of Dr. Shull's deposition."
At the post-conviction hearing, Jan Gardner Rochester Patterson, the petitioner's appellate counsel, testified that she began representing the petitioner after the motion for new trial was heard and denied. Thus, on appeal she was bound by the issues raised in the motion for new trial. Patterson stated that she was unaware of any issues relating to jury selection and, therefore, did not pursue this avenue on appeal. Additionally, Patterson noted that she attempted to gain this court's review of the deposition of Dr. Shull, however such attempt was unsuccessful.
Daniel Joseph Taylor, one of the petitioner's trial attorneys, testified that he was an assistant public defender at the time of the petitioner's trial. The district public defender, George Googe, testified that he was the lead counsel on the petitioner's case and, due to the seriousness of the case, he requested Taylor's assistance. The attorneys explained that they frequently discussed the issues in the petitioner's case, but Googe made the ultimate decisions relating to trial strategy.
Taylor observed that he handled the majority of the investigation of the case. Taylor and Googe both noted that the petitioner told the attorneys prior to trial that he had a juvenile record. Because the petitioner's juvenile record would not be an issue at trial, the attorneys did not obtain the records until after trial. However, the attorneys did obtain the petitioner's juvenile records prior to sentencing. Googe asserted that because the petitioner's juvenile record was not an issue at trial, relying upon the petitioner's account of his juvenile record "was proper as far as the preparations for trial."
Both attorneys stated that they were aware that, while a juvenile, the petitioner had been charged with the theft of property under five hundred dollars ($500) from the Garden Plaza Hotel . Additionally, although juror Jeffrey Maness revealed during voir dire that he was the manager of the Garden Plaza Hotel, neither Maness nor the petitioner indicated that they knew one another. When confronted at the post-conviction hearing with a property receipt which revealed that Maness accepted the return of the videocassette recorder (VCR) which the petitioner stole from the hotel, Taylor conceded that the attorneys did not have the receipt prior to trial.
Taylor acknowledged that during voir dire Maness revealed that his father had been killed during an armed robbery five years before the petitioner's t
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