pleased to court my name is paul turnaround with the federal public defender office in las vegas nevada i'm here this morning to represent daniel corcoran dan corcoran suffers from a devastating mental illness bipolar disease a roman one the worst kind this has been true largely throughout his life since he was a teenager there's a document in this case which is not in the  resident taska darrow mental previously defended is bipolar the thing that states needs help you don't see those kind of notes often you don't you don't you don't most of us don't know what happens when somebody is arrested very poignant i mean how that's what lawyers for in nevada lawyer supposed to represent his client zealously within the bounds of the law there are no options you don't have any so you don't have the alternatives you've got you've got to do that that's why he should have had a confidence a hearing that's obvious from this record there was a box of documents which we're going to sign this it's this is a very interesting case because the way the mental health records got to the court from dan's lawyer they got to the court from the prosecutor i certainly commend him for putting them in the record i sort of wonder why he did that i'm wondering whether he was embarrassed almost to not do that but that's where the box came from at the plea the should have been doing things should the notice of appeal because he should have realized that something is very wrong with this ca a rational defendant would want to appeal a rational defendant not a sick defendant not a mentally ill death and of a rational defendant would we have to deal with would have wanted to appeal would have known that something's wrong here i got a problem i'm sick somebody should have noted that that's that th right now i think it also goes back clearly to when this crime occurred you get into a lot of interesting questions here if your honor knows the felony murder rule comes into play where you may not have had to prove specific intent to kill to get the murder you definitely didn't get the attempt talking about something else boykin would be one of the issues there is there isn't about authorities from side of the court which suggested boy can is raised later at a post conviction i was wondering because the state says that you can't raise and direct he or right i yet if you had a huge record of a mental health history of this man it was in the record the related issue is that the lawyer should have i mean you should have been able to bring ineffective assistance claims on direct appeal case goes forward as we all know you can't convict an incompetent you can't you can't take a plea of an incompetent you can't sentence an incompetent so a rational defendant would want that issue to be brought forward he would be begging to have it brought forward because rebuttal the district court says the corcoran had no grounds on which he could raise a direct appeal yes so what are we supposed to do with that mental health history is an adequate record thing is wrong here when there's no competency hearing mental health is never mentioned the only man who mentions it is the prosecutor and the judge once saying something like she the guy's got some mental health problems healthy client who's not mentally ill how in the world can an inmate law clerk somehow override a mentally ill client and make lockhart's do some great things but they're not that they're not really that well versed in the law or dealing with mentally ill people frankly and these documents clearly indicate the corcoran was raving among many important rights his right to appeal direct appeal and appellate counsel whether retained or appointed now the nevada supreme court when it ruled on this issue on the  to directly appeal because of the waivers and secondly that the record to live in the indication that parker himself had told his attorney that he wanted to direct appeal specifically and his second state post conviction proceeding challenges trial court error and his attorneys are prevailing to him of the direct appeal issue but he never says i told them i wanted an appeal and that's a excerpt of record two fifty six the other thing that negotiation that he entered into and in this case the three very important reasons corcoran entered the negotiation first the state dismissed two of the charges secondly the state agreed not to issue a recommendation regarding concurrent or consecutive sentencing and third and most important as was argued at sentencing corkran one of the possibility of parole so that he might at some day have a relationship with his son and possibly his grandchildren  it is neither incorrect nor objective leon reasonable however if the court were to adopt the position of the nevada supreme court did not adopt the roe standard parkrun would still be required to prove that the state court's ruling was substantially and recommendation regarding consecutive sentence although he did get consecutive sentencing and third he does have the possibility of parole in this case so as to the merits of ground one respondents would argue that the federal district court got it right and we would ask you if allegations in the petition if proved would entitle him to relief under phillips we would first or turner be called here because for all but a few very narrow grounds for direct appeal and all of the issues that and claims that he would have grace had he had a direct appeal again independent and effective assistance of counsel and a challenge to his play which are required about the law again to be race post conviction and the nevada supreme court addressed this there were no grounds on which t counsel for her friend has argued that he had a very severe and debilitating mental illness and that this should amount to cause the procedural default as the grounds to three and four respondents argue that the court the district court did not air and finding  that was in front of the state courts and in front of the federal courts does not amount us pacifically dr smith's analysis as referenced by opposing counsel was testing that occurred after the default period which is our period of actively applied the analysis to show that corcoran was mentally disabled the mental health history that is presented does not realize to the level of the severe disturbance for which the judge if applicable tolling applies specifically if he was so severely mentally disabled why was he able to file on november one thousand nine hundred seven a belated direct appeal to the nevada supreme court and in february of one thousand nine hundred eight a first date post conviction proceeding both of which were submitted years and counsel has argued that this is evidence but particularly when he was arrested that he was severely disabled he asked for help i would submit to you that this is not a naive person he had had many interactions with law enforcement and perhaps given the severity of the crime once you got him in jail i mean i would want to speculate but perhaps he was accustomed to the environment he knew what to say the record does not reflect a severe and debilitating record of mental health history counsel has  the court records with three volumes in it the prosecutor you actually use the mental health records to demonstrate that in conjunction with his prior criminal history that he was an extremely dangerous person and in arguing for the s standards that counsel has referenced what we have to ask is whether a reasonable judge situated as the trial judge should have expressed doubt with respect to corcoran's ability to enter a plea under davis we would and it has to be substantial evidence if i doubt as to his mental state mental status in order for it to be ineffective assistance of counsel he would have to show the clerk and could not consult me to a reasonable degree of rational understanding and that the record indicates that  mr mr corcoran you've had a history of mental illness you feeling ok today everything ok with you what's going on with your medicine zilch nothing yes no answers yes no answers don't don't mean anything you need to ferret out the the truth  the record might not reflect the way in which mr corcoran presented himself but it's somebody who sits with hits all largely and looks at the judge and answers in a clear a clear voice might not trigger any inquiry on the part of the judge but if i had a box with three down and discussing in detail you know what would happen at that stage of this proceeding i think i think he fully understands that and you pull them out i should have told him that i hope i did i think he i think he fully understands i talked to him yesterday  think for yesterday for the last time i think he fully understands what's at stake here he wants his day in court he wants a fair day in court and that most of my clients are looking for that he's one of them and that is that what you're going to get a fair day even if you say coun