Case ID: f-appx_692/html/0801-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America Plaintiff-Appellee v. Randel BRANSCUM Defendant-Appellant
    No. 16-4430
    United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
    Submitted: July 3, 2017
    Filed: July 12, 2017
    Thomas Chandler, Trial Attorney, Elizabeth Hecker, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC, Gabriel A. Davis, Samantha Trepel, U.S. Department of Justice, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, Julie Peters, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, Little Rock, AR, for Plaintiff-Appellee
    Randel Branscum, Pro Se
    Before BENTON, BOWMAN, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM.

Randel Branscum appeals after he pleaded guilty with a written plea agreement to a civil rights offense and the District Court imposed the agreed-upon sentence. Branscum’s counsel has moved for leave to withdraw and has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), questioning whether Branscum received effective assistance of counsel.

We decline to address the ineffective-assistance claim on direct appeal. See United States v. Ramirez-Hernandez, 449 F.3d 824, 826-27 (8th Cir. 2006) (noting that ineffective-assistance claims' “are usually best litigated in collateral proceedings” where the record can be properly developed). We have reviewed the record under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 80, 109 S.Ct. 346, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988), and we have found no non-frivolous issues for appeal. We affirm the judgment, and we grant counsel’s motion for leave to withdraw. 
      
      . The Honorable Brian S. Miller, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas,