Opinion

Presley v. State

  • 750 S.W.2d 602
  • 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 535
  • 1988 WL 33317
Court
Missouri Court of Appeals
Filed
Apr 15, 1988
Status
Published
Author
Prewitt
On the bench
Crow, Flanigan, Greene, Hogan, Holstein, Maus, Prewitt
Cited by
31 cases
Authority
More cited than 10.7%

The opinion

PREWITT, Judge,

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent. The majority opinion does a thorough and admirable job of analyzing the authorities and the problems in a case such as this, but I disagree with the conclusion reached.

Certainly movant’s counsel erred. If a challenge for cause had been made it would have been error not to have excused venireman Cates. However, I believe movant has failed to meet the applicable burden for relief established in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).

I agree that as indicated in Strickland, 466 U.S. at 692 , 104 S.Ct. at 2067 , there are situations where prejudice from ineffective assistance of counsel can be “presumed”. Counsel’s error resulted in a juror serving who said he was a “little partial” against movant. That should not be enough for a presumption of prejudice entitling movant to a new trial where, as here, counsel was otherwise effective and in my view movant received a fair trial although, as is always the case, not a perfect one.

I would reverse because movant failed to satisfy the standard in Strickland for him to show “that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” 466 U.S. at 694 , 104 S.Ct. at 2068 . There is no basis to believe that the presence of juror Cates probably affected the outcome. On the evidence here it is highly unlikely that counsel’s error changed the result.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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