Case ID: f-appx_421/html/0406-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM: \n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Edwin Kiefe SANDERS, Defendant-Appellant.
    No. 10-50596
    Summary Calendar.
    United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    April 7, 2011.
    Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
    Thomas L. Wright, El Paso, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.
    Before REAVLEY, DENNIS, and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Edwin Kiefe Sanders appeals from his guilty plea conviction on one count of possession of material involving the sexual exploitation of children. He contends that his conviction should be set aside because his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to file a motion to suppress and by failing to request that the district court appoint a psychiatrist to evaluate his competence to plead guilty.

As a general rule, this court will not consider an ineffeetive-assistance-of-coun-sel claim that was not raised in district court. United States v. Higdon, 832 F.2d 312, 313-14 (5th Cir.1987). Moreover, the Supreme Court has emphasized that a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion is the preferred method for raising a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500, 503-04, 123 S.Ct. 1690, 155 L.Ed.2d 714 (2003). As the record for this case is not sufficiently developed to qualify for an exception to that general rule, we decline to consider Sanders’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in this appeal without prejudice to his ability to raise this claim in a § 2255 motion.

The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. 
      
       Pursuant to 5th Cm. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cm. R. 47.5.4.