 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
People v. McMillin9/1/2004
ence and I ended up doing like ten months out of a three[-]year sentence, if I recall it right.
Q. Are you sure you got a three[-]year sentence?
A. I'm pretty sure, yeah.
* * *
Q. * * * If your court papers say you only got two years, do you dispute that?
**17 ***506 A. It's been a long time since I seen them court papers from back in '96.
Q. So it might have been two years instead of three years?
A. It might have been. I done ten months on a two-year sentence. I know it was at least two to three years and I did ten months."
To the extent the amount of prison confinement that the defendant actually endured because of committing a crime, identical to the crime charged, on an earlier occasion had any bearing on this case, the presentence report shows that the defendant had been sentenced to a 2 1/2 -year term of imprisonment for aggravated battery, which had been served, in part, at the same time as a two-year sentence for driving on a revoked license.
The defendant was never charged with, or convicted of, the offense of escape. The actual charge and conviction was less aggravated. The defendant pled guilty to, and was sentenced for, the failure to appear.
*344 We are asked to overturn the defendant's convictions because of trial counsel's incompetence. We reverse, and we remand for a new trial.
Generally, defense counsel are presumed to pursue sound trial strategies. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2065, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, 694-95 (1984). The presumptive soundness of their performance gives way to a finding of representation's deficiency only where no reasonably effective criminal defense attorney, confronting trial's circumstances, would engage in similar conduct. People v. Faulkner, 292 Ill.App.3d 391, 394, 226 Ill.Dec. 749, 686 N.E.2d 379, 382 (1997). The constitution's guarantee of "assistance of counsel" calls for "reasonably effective assistance." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d at 693.
Criminal defense lawyers must assist defendants in a way that the constitution's guarantee to "assistance of counsel" contemplates. As we pointed out in People v. Lefler, 294 Ill.App.3d 305, 228 Ill.Dec. 788, 689 N.E.2d 1209 (1998):
"The constitution contemplates assistance that engages evidentiary rules to shield an accused from a decision based on unreliable evidence. [Citation.] It contemplates assistance that appreciates and understands legal principles applicable to the case. [Citation.] It contemplates assistance ready to provide adversarial check to a prosecutor's excessive endeavors. [Citation.] In short, the constitution contemplates more help from counsel than this defendant received." Lefler, 294 Ill.App.3d at 310, 228 Ill.Dec. 788, 689 N.E.2d at 1213.
The constitution calls for better assistance than that which was provided here.
We cannot discern a strategy for allowing the State to introduce a hearsay statement from Tim Wehrle that refuted the defendant's core defense. Allowing Wehrle's hearsay claim that the defendant stole Wehrle's truck that evening had to stem from an inability to recognize hearsay evidence or from ignorance about the general rule against hearsay's admissibility. Either way, defense counsel allowed damaging hearsay, clearly improper in nature, to be admitted into evidence. The hearsay was testimonial in nature, in violation of the defendant's sixth amendment right to confrontation. See Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). No reasonably effective defense attorney, confronting a similar improper effort to introduce damaging hearsay evidence, would allow for it.
**18 ***507 Nor would reasonably effective criminal defense attorneys allow jurors to hear and consider their failure to c
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Illinois DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|