Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 10A01-1604-PC-690 | March 15, 2017 Page 1 of 22

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT

Stephen T. Owens

Public Defender of Indiana

Jeffrey R. Wright

Deputy Public Defender

Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE

Curtis T. Hill, Jr.

Attorney General of Indiana

J.T. Whitehead

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Gary Hanks,

Appellant-Petitioner,

v.

State of Indiana,

Appellee-Respondent.

March 15, 2017

Court of Appeals Case No.

10A01-1604-PC-690

Appeal from the Clark Circuit 

Court

The Honorable Andrew Adams, 

Judge

Trial Court Cause No.

10C01-1106-PC-7

Mathias, Judge.

[1] Gary Hanks (“Hanks”) pleaded guilty in Clark Circuit Court to one count of 

Class A felony child molesting. Hanks collaterally attacks his plea as the 

product of the ineffective assistance of his trial counsel and as not knowingly, 

intelligently, and voluntarily made. Hanks’s petition for post-conviction relief 

on those grounds was denied by the court below.
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[2] When a defendant is deciding whether to expose himself to a sentencing judge’s 

absolute discretion, is local defense counsel constitutionally required to advise 

his client of the local judge’s sentencing practices in cases like his client’s?

Because Hanks has not persuaded us that, as applied to the facts of his case, 

counsel was required to do so, we affirm as to the ineffective assistance claim. 

We remand for judgment on the voluntariness claim because it was raised but 

not resolved below.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] On July 20, 2000, Hanks was charged with one count of Class A felony child 

molesting and four counts of Class C felony child molesting. The State’s case

for guilt was strong: Hanks’s grade-school-aged victim, then living with Hanks,

had come forward with credible accusations and Hanks had admitted the truth 

of most or all of them during a noncustodial taped interview in Hanks’s home 

with a detective of the Jeffersonville Police Department.

[4] On February 5, 2001, after withdrawal of Hanks’s private counsel, the Clark

Circuit Court appointed the Clark County public defender to represent Hanks. 

On February 13, 2001, attorney Christopher Sturgeon (“Sturgeon”) of the 

public defender’s office entered his appearance for Hanks. Sturgeon had had a 

long career in Clark County criminal litigation, serving as a deputy prosecutor 

from 1989 to 1994 and as a public defender since 1994. Hanks was then being 

held in the Clark County jail.
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[5] On March 7, 2001, from his office about five miles away, Sturgeon sent Hanks 

a letter in jail about a plea offer Sturgeon had received from the State. Under 

the offer (“the thirty-year offer”), Hanks would plead guilty to the Class A 

felony charge. In return, the State would dismiss the four Class C felony 

charges and recommend a thirty-year sentence, then the presumptive sentence 

for a Class A felony. Sturgeon “assume[d]” that he and Hanks had discussed 

the thirty-year offer before Sturgeon’s March 7, 2001, letter, Tr. p. 31, but, in 

any event, Hanks held out hope for a reduced sentence between the twenty-year 

statutory minimum and the thirty-year presumptive sentence.

[6] In his letter, Sturgeon emphasized that the prosecutor “will not reduce her 

previous [thirty-year] plea offer . . . .” Ex. Vol., Pet.’s Ex. G (original 

emphasis). Hanks “must either accept her plea offer or go to trial.” Id. Sturgeon 

advised Hanks of the ninety-year maximum sentence Hanks could face if he 

went to trial on all five felony charges and lost. Sturgeon noted that Hanks had 

previously told him that Hanks “did not have any intention of going to trial.” 

Id. Hanks now needed to make a final decision “whether [he] want[ed] to 

accept the plea agreement or go to trial.” Id. With trial set for March 20, 2001, 

Sturgeon needed to know Hank’s choice “immediately.” Id. Beyond reciting the 

terms of the thirty-year offer and the statutory maximum sentence Hanks could 

face if convicted of all charges, Sturgeon provided no substantive advice as to 

which course to pursue and did not suggest any alternative courses.
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[7] Hanks did not accept the thirty-year offer. The record does not disclose whether 

Hanks expressly rejected it, or whether and when the offer expired or was 

withdrawn. On Hanks’s motion, trial was continued to June 26, 2001.

[8] On May 21, 2001, the State made a new offer (“the open offer”): Hanks would 

plead guilty “open,” that is, without benefit of a sentencing recommendation 

from the State, to the Class A felony charge. If the agreement were accepted by 

the trial court, the trial court would retain absolute discretion to fix any 

sentence between the twenty-year statutory minimum and the fifty-year 

statutory maximum. In return, as under the thirty-year offer, the State would 

dismiss the four Class C felony charges.

[9] The course of negotiations leading to this offer, and Sturgeon’s advice, if any, to 

Hanks as he considered it, do not appear clearly from the record. Hanks 

testified that, beyond the thirty-year offer, the “only other avenue that 

[Sturgeon] presented to [him] was the [open offer] or going to trial.” Tr. p. 52.

Hanks testified that he and Sturgeon did not discuss what the sentencing judge 

“might do” in sentencing Hanks on an open plea, Tr. p. 55, and that Hanks 

received no guidance on the likelihood of achieving his stated goal of a sentence 

under thirty years. Tr. p. 52. Hanks accepted the open offer, still hoping for a 

sentence less than thirty years. On June 11, 2001, the plea agreement was filed

and accepted by the trial court.

[10] At that time, Judge Daniel F. Donahue (“Judge Donahue”) was judge of the 

Clark Circuit Court. Judge Donahue served in that capacity from 1987 to 2008. 
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During that time, Judge Donahue, according to his own account, “took a hard 

stance in sentencing defendants in sexual offender sentencing proceedings.” Ex. 

Vol., Pet.’s Ex. E. While Judge Donahue based his sentencing decisions on the 

evidence and argument presented by the parties, “it was not uncommon for 

maximum sentences to be imposed” by him in sex offender cases. Id. This 

“history of imposing maximum sentences in se[x] offender cases,” Judge 

Donahue thought, “would likely” have been known to local criminal 

defendants and to the local defense bar. Id. Moreover, Judge Donahue “did not 

particularly care for ‘blind [i.e., open] pleas,’ but preferred to have the State and 

the defense decide an appropriate sentence . . . and present that determination 

to the [c]ourt for its acceptance or rejection.” Id. Sturgeon, however, despite his 

long career in Clark County criminal litigation, was aware neither of Judge 

Donahue’s sentencing practices in sex offender cases, Tr. p. 21, nor of Judge 

Donahue’s disfavor of open pleas. Tr. p. 22.

[11] At his July 11, 2001, sentencing before Judge Donahue, Hanks pleaded for 

mercy. Sturgeon pointed out Hanks’s contrition and immediate acceptance of 

responsibility but brought forward no evidence in mitigation outside what 

Hanks had just told the court in allocution. The State brought forward the 

victim’s mother and tendered a case on appropriate sentencing in cases like 

Hanks’s. The prosecutor hoped “God shows [Hanks] mercy. This [c]ourt 

should show him none.” Ex. Vol., Pet.’s Ex. C., p. 26. Judge Donahue 

exercised his absolute discretion to the fullest and sentenced Hanks to the 
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statutory maximum fifty-year term in the Department of Correction. Hanks did 

not appeal his sentence.

[12] Sometime later, Hanks heard from a fellow inmate at the Department of 

Correction that the following colloquy with Judge Donahue had taken place at 

the fellow inmate’s September 30, 2002, sentencing hearing on an open guilty 

plea to a sex offense:

The Court: Were you aware of the fact that in two prior 

cases of a similar nature in which [the fellow 

inmate’s counsel] was defense attorney I 

maxed out [i.e., gave the maximum sentence 

to] the two individuals and they’re both serving 

fifty years in prison. Were you aware of that?

[Fellow Inmate]: No, sir. . . . .

The Court: [The fellow inmate’s counsel] represented them 

and they were blind pleas and I listened to it 

all. I read the Pre-Sentence Investigation 

Report. I heard what every, each side had to 

say. And in those cases I maxed them out . . . . 

So I’m going to do the same thing here. I don’t 

know, as I sit here I cannot tell you 

immediately what sentence I’m going to 

impose, but you need to know for the record 

that in these kinds of cases I—[i]t ought to be 

known to criminal [d]efendants that I take a 

pretty hard stand. . . . . I want you to know that 

that’s the history that I have. And to be fair to 

you, you need to know it up front before we go 

forward and before you enter pleas . . . . I don’t 

particularly care for blind pleas. I’d much 
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rather the State and the defense, and defense 

counsel decide what is appropriate based upon 

history. . . . I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll go 

off record. And I’ll step down and we’ll give 

[the fellow inmate] and [his attorney] five or 

ten minutes to discuss this. . . . [Y]ou need to 

know up front, and you, quite frankly, should 

have been told.

Confidential Ex. Vol., Pet.’s Ex. D1, pp. 20–21.

[13] Hanks petitioned for post-conviction relief on June 16, 2011. The postconviction court heard evidence and argument on Hanks’s amended petition on 

January 22, 2016. Particularly, the court heard the testimony of Hanks, 

Sturgeon, and Jeffrey Stonebraker (“Stonebraker”), chief public defender for 

Clark County in 2001 and at the time of the hearing in this case. The postconviction court denied the petition on March 8, 2016. 

[14] This appeal timely followed. Hanks claims that Sturgeon provided 

constitutionally ineffective assistance in failing to advise Hanks of Judge 

Donahue’s sentencing practices with regard to open pleas in sex offender cases, 

but for which failure Hanks would not have rejected the thirty-year offer. Hanks 

claims further that, from his ignorance of Judge Donahue’s sentencing 

practices, his guilty plea was not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made. 

To remedy these alleged deficiencies, Hanks seeks reduction of his fifty-year 

sentence to thirty years.
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Standard of Review

[15] A post-conviction petitioner bears the burden of showing he is entitled to relief 

by a preponderance of the evidence. Bethea v. State, 983 N.E.2d 1134, 1138 (Ind. 

2013); Ind. Post-Conviction Rule 1(5). A petitioner appealing the denial of his 

petition thus appeals from a negative judgment, that is, from an adverse 

decision of an issue on which the petitioner bore the burden of proof. Bethea, 

983 N.E.2d at 1138. To prevail on appeal of a negative judgment, the petitioner

must show that the evidence as a whole leads unerringly and unmistakably to a 

conclusion opposite that reached by the post-conviction court. Id. We disturb 

that court’s factual findings only where clearly erroneous, leaving us with a 

definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made. Id. We review legal 

conclusions de novo. Id.

Discussion and Decision

I. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

[16] The Sixth Amendment to the federal constitution, applied to this state in 

relevant part by the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the right of an accused 

“[i]n all criminal prosecutions . . . to have the assistance of counsel for his 

defense.” U.S. Const. amend. VI; Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 68 (1932).

Our state constitution protects the same right. Ind. Const. art. I, § 13 (“In all 

criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right . . . to be heard by . . . 
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counsel . . . .”).1 The assistance of counsel means the effective assistance of 

counsel. Powell, 287 U.S. at 71. Counsel himself can deprive an accused of his 

Sixth Amendment right by failing to render adequate legal assistance. Strickland 

v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686 (1984). A defendant who receives ineffective 

assistance is entitled to a remedy that will “neutralize the taint of [the] 

constitutional violation,” Lafler v. Cooper, 132 S. Ct. 1376, 1388 (2012) (internal 

quotation and citation omitted), including setting aside a guilty plea where 

necessary. Id. at 1389.

[17] To prevail on a claim that he has received ineffective assistance of counsel, a 

defendant must satisfy a two-pronged test: first, that counsel’s performance fell 

below an objective standard of professional reasonableness (“the performance 

prong”); second, that there is a reasonable probability the outcome of the 

proceeding would have been different but for counsel’s unprofessional errors 

(“the prejudice prong”). Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687; Bethea, 983 N.E.2d at 1138–

39. Failure to satisfy either prong causes the whole claim to fail. French v. State, 

778 N.E.2d 816, 824 (Ind. 2002). This analysis applies equally to plea 

negotiations as to trial performance, Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (1985), Segura 

v. State, 749 N.E.2d 296 (Ind. 2001), as plea negotiation is one of the “critical 

phase[s] of litigation” to which the Sixth Amendment right attaches. Padilla v. 

Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 373 (2010).

 

1 Hanks raises no separate argument from this provision of our constitution.
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[18] The alleged deficiency in Sturgeon’s performance is his failure to advise Hanks

of Judge Donahue’s sentencing practices in sex offender cases. The postconviction court expressly found that Sturgeon “did not know” of those 

practices. Appellant’s App. p. 156. Hanks does not ask us to revisit that finding; 

indeed, he argues that the standard of review prohibits us from doing so. 

Appellant’s Br. p. 17. Rather, Hanks claims, Sturgeon’s “lack of knowledge, 

alone” was deficient performance. Id.

[19] This was the same claim the post-conviction court rejected as a matter of law. 

Appellant’s App. p. 157 (post-conviction court’s memorandum decision, ruling 

that, in the absence of evidence that “[Sturgeon] had any knowledge of what 

the judge would do or that [Sturgeon] mislead his client, [Sturgeon’s] failure to 

know, alone, does not meet the standard for ineffective assistance . . . .”). We 

owe no deference to the post-conviction court’s legal conclusion that Sturgeon’s 

failure to know, alone, cannot rise to the level of constitutionally deficient 

performance.

[20] “Even under de novo review,” however, “the standard for judging counsel’s 

representation is a most deferential one.” Premo v. Moore, 562 U.S. 115, 122 

(2011) (internal quotation and italics omitted). “[C]ounsel’s performance is 

presumed effective,” a presumption overcome only by “strong and convincing 

evidence” of ineffectiveness. Overstreet v. State, 877 N.E.2d 144, 152 (Ind. 2007).

Accordingly, we presume that all significant decisions were made in the 

exercise of counsel’s reasonable professional judgment. Timberlake v. State, 753 
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N.E.2d 591, 603 (Ind. 2001). In particular, counsel enjoys broad discretion in 

making tactical and strategic decisions, and we defer to such decisions. Id.

[21] “[H]ow to define the duty and responsibilities of defense counsel in the plea 

bargain process” is a “difficult question.” Missouri v. Frye, 132 S. Ct. 1399, 1408 

(2012). The interaction of Strickland with the Supreme Court’s more recent 

decisions in Padilla, Lafler, and Frye has created “a new field not only of pleabargaining law, [as charged by the Lafler dissenters, 132 S. Ct. at 1391 (Scalia, 

J., dissenting),] but also of pretrial advice law.” Richard E. Myers II, The Future 

of Effective Assistance of Counsel: Rereading Cronic and Strickland in Light of 

Padilla, Frye, and Lafler, 25 Tex. Tech. L. Rev. 229, 234 (2013). The 

boundaries of this new field are still undefined. Neither Hanks nor the State 

have provided us with adequate guidance for resolving this question of first 

impression: When a defendant is deciding whether to expose himself to a local 

sentencing judge’s absolute discretion, is local defense counsel constitutionally 

required to advise his client of the local judge’s sentencing practices in cases like 

his client’s?

[22] First, the distinctions between failure to know, failure to advise, and 

affirmatively bad advice are not dispositive to the legal analysis of Hanks’s 

claim. To the extent that the post-conviction court’s decision relied on those

distinctions, the court erred.

[23] The Supreme Court considered the operation of the distinction between failure 

to advise and bad advice in Padilla. There, a long-time lawful permanent 
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resident of the United States pleaded guilty to several drug offenses. Counsel 

did not tell Padilla that his guilty plea “made his deportation virtually 

mandatory,” 559 U.S. at 359, and affirmatively advised him not “to worry 

about immigration status.” Id.

[24] The Court squarely held “that counsel must inform her client whether his plea 

carries a risk of deportation.” Id. at 374 (emphasis added). This holding 

expressly rejects the distinction between failure to advise and bad advice. See 

also id. at 369-70 (considering whether to limit Strickland to cases of bad advice, 

where its application is well settled, and deciding not to so limit it), 388 (Alito, 

J., concurring in the judgment) (“[S]ilence alone is not enough to satisfy 

counsel’s duty to assist the client.”); Black v. State, 54 N.E.3d 414, 427 (Ind. Ct. 

App. 2016) (reading Padilla to hold that “there is no relevant difference between 

an act of commission and an act of omission”), trans. denied. This holding also 

impliedly rejects the distinction between failure to advise of what is known and 

failure to know, alone.

[25] Similarly, in Frye, a case close to the facts before us, defense counsel failed to 

inform the defendant of a favorable plea offer from the prosecution. The offer 

lapsed. Frye later pleaded guilty open, as Hanks did, and received a harsher 

sentence than he would have under the lapsed offer. There as here, “the guilty 

plea that was accepted, and the plea proceedings concerning it in court, were all 

based on accurate advice and information from counsel.” Frye, 132 S. Ct. at 

1406. There as here, “[t]he challenge is not to the advice pertaining to the plea 

that was accepted [viz., in Hanks’s case, the choice between the open offer and 
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trial] but rather to the course of legal representation that preceded it with 

respect to other potential pleas and plea offers [viz., in Hanks’s case, the choice 

between the thirty-year offer, trial, or seeking a more favorable offer].” Id.

[26] The Court held that, “as a general rule, defense counsel has the duty to 

communicate formal offers from the prosecution to accept a plea on terms and 

conditions that may be favorable to the accused.” Id. at 1408 (emphasis added).

Nothing here suggests that counsel’s duty to communicate would have 

evaporated if Missouri had shown that Frye’s counsel did not actually know of 

the plea offer (for example, if counsel never opened the prosecutor’s letter 

communicating the offer), so long as it could fairly be said that counsel should

have known of the offer.

[27] If failure to advise may be constitutionally deficient on the same terms as bad 

advice, the cause of a failure to advise, whether because of overwork,2

procrastination, or ignorance, is immaterial. The right at issue is the right “the 

accused shall enjoy,” U.S. Const. amend. VI (emphasis added), to receive the

effective assistance of counsel. It is either the right of an accused to be advised 

of a particular fact, or it is not. If information about a local judge’s sentencing 

practices is a necessary component of receiving effective assistance from local 

 

2 In Frye, “Galin Frye’s lawyer did not make a strategic choice to decline to relay the prosecutor’s offer 

because he thought it was unreasonable or that Frye had a case worth taking to trial. Rather, he was 

struggling with a crushing caseload that so preoccupied him that he did not even find the time to 

communicate a favorable plea offer to Frye.” Peter A. Joy & Rodney J. Uphoff, Systemic Barriers to Effective 

Assistance of Counsel in Plea Bargaining, 99 Iowa L. Rev. 2103, 2112 (2014).
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counsel in a particular case, the accused’s lack of such information satisfies the 

performance prong without regard for why counsel failed to supply it. Put 

another way, the content of the Sixth Amendment right is defined by an objective

standard of professional reasonableness, not by individual counsel’s subjective

knowledge, skill, or diligence.

[28] Next, with no barrier as a matter of law to Hanks’s claim, it remained Hanks’s

burden to show that, on the facts of his case, Sturgeon’s failure to advise him of 

Judge Donahue’s sentencing practices fell below an objective standard of 

professional reasonableness. This Hanks has not done.

[29] In its standards for criminal practitioners, the American Bar Association 

(“ABA”) states, with respect to sentencing, “Defense counsel’s preparation 

should . . . include familiarization with the court’s practices in exercising 

sentencing discretion . . . and [with] the normal pattern of sentences for the 

offense involved . . . .” Criminal Justice Standards: Prosecution Function and 

Defense Function Standard 4-8.1 (Am. Bar Ass’n 1993). The comment to 

Standard 4-8.1 explains further that “[c]ounsel must . . . become familiar with 

the judge’s actual sentencing practices. . . . The lawyer should carefully explain 

to the defendant the sentencing alternatives available to the court and what they 

will mean for the defendant personally . . . .” Id. at cmt. We note that the 

language of the governing standard itself is hortatory (“should”); only the 

language of the comment is mandatory (“must”). Neither the ABA’s Model 

Rules of Professional Conduct nor Indiana’s Rules of Professional Conduct 

speak directly to this issue.
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[30] Whether, as a general rule, performance is measured by a national or local 

standard is not settled. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689 (“Prevailing norms of 

practice as reflected in [ABA] standards and the like . . . are guides to 

determining what is reasonable . . . .”). Compare Rompilla v. Beard, 545 U.S. 374, 

387 (2005) (The ABA standards state counsel’s obligation to investigate “in 

terms no one could misunderstand . . . .”), Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 524 

(2003) (“Counsel’s conduct . . . fell short of the standards for capital defense 

work articulated by the [ABA] . . . .”), Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 396 

(2000) (finding deficient performance in capital sentencing where “trial counsel 

did not fulfill their obligation to conduct a thorough investigation of the 

defendant’s background” as required by ABA standards), with Cullen v. 

Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 196 (2011) (denying relief and faulting dissenters for 

failing to cite evidence that counsel’s conduct “would have been inconsistent 

with the standard of professional competence in capital cases that prevailed in 

Los Angeles in 1984”), Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 524 (“Counsel’s decision . . . fell 

short of the professional standards that prevailed in Maryland in 1989.”). 

[31] The strongest claims for deficient performance, of course, present failures of 

multiple standards. See Frye, 132 S. Ct. at 1408 (granting relief relying on ABA 

standards, holdings of five state high courts and seven federal circuits, and six 

state codes of professional conduct), Wiggins, 539 at 524–25 (relying on both

national and local standards). The Supreme Court has emphasized that national 

standards like the ABA’s are “guides to determining what is reasonable, but 

they are only guides.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688.
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[32] In the case of familiarity with local judges’ sentencing practices, a national 

standard, standing alone, seems particularly inadequate to determining the 

lower bounds of reasonably effective performance. We acknowledge that the 

federal constitution must mean the same thing in Clark County as in Marion 

County, see Tr. p. 65 (prosecutor expressing doubt about how Hanks’s argument

could apply to large counties like Marion), and the same thing in Indiana as in 

Illinois. Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 14 U.S. 304, 348 (1816) (Story, J.) (“If . . . the 

constitution of the United States [c]ould be different in different states, . . . [t]he 

public mischiefs that would attend such a state of things would be truly 

deplorable . . . .”). Further, we acknowledge that use of a local standard may 

validate as “tactical” the individual decisions imposed on counsel by a 

structurally deficient system of representation, whether due to systemic 

prejudice, systemic lack of resources, or other systemic defect. See Tollett v. 

Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 269 (1973) (“[T]he chances of respondent’s being able 

to [prove an incompetently counseled guilty plea on remand] would appear 

slim” in view of the lower courts’ reliance on “the statement of the concurring 

judge in the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals that ‘[n]o lawyer in this State 

would have ever thought of objecting to the fact that Negroes did not serve on 

the Grand Jury in Tennessee in 1948 . . . .’”).

[33] Nevertheless, in the case of local counsel’s familiarity with a local judge’s 

sentencing practices in a class of cases, while the ABA standards impose a 

general, national obligation on defense counsel to attain such familiarity, the 

particular content of this obligation is susceptible to local variation in a way 
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that other professional standards, for example, the duty to adequately 

investigate or the duty to communicate plea offers, are not. What level of 

familiarity with local judges in a class of cases is professionally reasonable, and 

how quickly it is professionally reasonable to attain that level of familiarity, will 

obviously be very different in Clark County, Indiana, than in Cook County, 

Illinois, with a population nearly fifty times as great.3

[34] When a claim of ineffective assistance is predicated on failure to advise of or act 

on local, extralegal idiosyncrasies, as Hanks’s is, a showing of deficient 

performance requires strong evidence that the local, extralegal idiosyncrasy rose 

to the level of governing professional norm. See Premo v. Moore, 562 U.S. at 122 

(“The question is whether an attorney’s representation amounted to 

incompetence under prevailing professional norms, not whether it deviated 

from best practices or most common custom.” (internal quotation and citation 

omitted)).

[35] Crucially, there is no evidence in the record that reasonable professional 

competence in Clark County in 2001 required knowledge of Judge Donahue’s 

sentencing practices in sex offender cases. The only evidence in the record is 

that Sturgeon did not know of these practices; that Stonebraker, the chief public 

defender for Clark County, and his office did not formally or informally instruct 

 

3 Clark County, population 110,232; Cook County, population 5,194,675. U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census 

Interactive Population Search, http://www.census.gov/2010census/popmap/ipmtext.php?fl=18019:17031 (last 

updated May 26, 2011). 
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its attorneys on these or other judges’ practices; and that Judge Donahue 

speculated local attorneys “would likely” know of his practices. Ex. Vol., Pet.’s 

Ex. E. 

[36] Neither Judge Donahue nor a single local attorney claimed that any local 

attorney actually did know of Judge Donahue’s practices. There is no evidence 

of the frequency with which sex offender cases were brought before Judge 

Donahue, still less of how many such cases were brought before the judge on 

open pleas, such that the judge’s “hard stance” in those cases, id., could or 

should have been inferred by local counsel. No evidence tended to show Judge 

Donahue actually had his self-ascribed reputation. To the contrary, Stonebraker 

testified that, in general, Judge Donahue “did not have a reputation for giving 

the maximum sentence in every case,” that Judge Donahue was thought to 

“evaluat[e] each case on its merits,” and that Judge Donahue did not have a 

reputation as a “hanging judge, so to speak.” Tr. p. 45. Judge Donahue’s 

speculation that he “would likely” have had such a reputation in sex offender 

cases is far from showing that local attorneys as a matter of professional 

competence should have known of his sentencing practices in such cases. Ex. 

Vol., Pet.’s Ex. E.

[37] Below, Hanks argued that “an attorney has to more than just say, you know, 

here’s the offer, here’s the sentence . . . , what do you want to do. An attorney 

has to give his client a little more guidance than that.” Tr. p. 69; see Boria v. 

Keane, 99 F.3d 492, 495 (2d Cir. 1996) (finding counsel’s agnosticism as to a 

plea offer to be constitutionally deficient because the ABA “standard on the 
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precise question before us is . . . [that a] ‘defense lawyer in a criminal case has 

the duty to advise his client on whether a particular plea to a charge appears to 

be desirable.’” (internal citation omitted)). 

[38] It is true that Sturgeon’s March 7, 2001, letter to Hanks offered no evaluation of 

or substantive advice regarding the wisdom of accepting the thirty-year offer. 

Sturgeon testified that such letters were his “standard practice” when a client 

did not want to accept a pending plea offer, drafted “the same day or within 

days,” Tr. p. 20, leaving little time for meaningful investigation or evaluation.

Sturgeon implied that anything more would remove the decision from his 

clients’ hands. See Tr. p. 31. Sturgeon further testified that another “standard 

practice” was “always to take about fifteen minutes and go through . . . plea 

agreements with [his] clients, paragraph by paragraph.” Tr. p. 32 (emphasis 

added). Hanks testified that he and Sturgeon did not discuss what the 

sentencing judge “might do” in sentencing Hanks on an open plea, Tr. p. 55, 

and that Hanks received no guidance on the likelihood of achieving his stated 

goal of a sentence under thirty years. Tr. p. 52. Though Sturgeon could not 

recall any specifics of Hanks’s case, this testimony suggests that Hanks decided 

to throw himself at the mercy of Judge Donahue, exposing himself to fifty 

years’ incarceration, on the strength of one letter reciting the applicable
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statutory maximum and minimum sentences, one fifteen-minute read-through

of the terms of the plea agreement, and nothing else. 4

[39] Hanks has not, however, renewed broad arguments from these facts on appeal, 

and they do not go to his narrow claim for failure to advise of Judge Donahue’s 

sentencing practices.

[40] For all of these reasons, we conclude that Hanks has not carried his burden to 

show that the facts of this case lead unerringly and unmistakably to the 

conclusion that Sturgeon, by his failure to advise Hanks of Judge Donahue’s 

sentencing practices in sex offender cases, fell short of the standard of 

reasonable competence demanded of Clark County defense counsel in 2001. 

We must decline Hanks’s invitation to constitutionalize Judge Donahue’s 

opinion about what a different criminal defendant, “quite frankly, should have 

been told.” Confidential Ex. Vol., Pet.’s Ex. D1, p. 21.

 

4 Moreover, in a case where Hanks’s guilt was nearly a foregone conclusion, and nearly all the benefit Hanks 

could get from counsel would be had either in plea bargaining or at sentencing, Sturgeon presented effectively 

no case in mitigation. Hanks pleaded for mercy in allocution; Sturgeon pointed out that Hanks had just 

accepted responsibility and was contrite. However, Sturgeon did emphasize that “nobody . . . can undo what 

has been done to [Hanks’s victim],” Ex. Vol., Pet.’s Ex. B, p. 18, that Hanks was “willing to accept whatever 

punishment the [c]ourt deems necessary,” id. at p. 19, that “whatever the [c]ourt does to [Hanks] is nothing 

compared to what he has done to [his victim],” id., that “it’s between Mr. Hanks and God,” id., and that 

Sturgeon was not “going to sit here and try to recommend anything specific to the [c]ourt,” id. at p. 20, 

despite his client’s repeatedly expressed desire for a sentence less than the presumptive. Tr. pp. 51–52. 

Sturgeon’s parsimony and sua maxima culpa could not, of course, have been a tactical preference in the face of 

Judge Donahue’s “hard stance” in sex offender cases, Ex. Vol., Pet.’s Ex. E, because Sturgeon did not know 

of that stance.
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[41] Because Hanks failed to show deficient performance, his entire ineffective 

assistance claim fails, and we need not reach the question of prejudice. French v. 

State, 778 N.E.2d 816, 824 (Ind. 2002).

II. Knowing, Intelligent, and Voluntary Plea

[42] Hanks claims further that his plea, from ignorance of Judge Donahue’s 

sentencing practices, was not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. Hanks

properly raised this claim in the post-conviction court, supporting it with

evidence and argument. Appellant’s App. pp. 55-57 (memorandum of law in 

support of amended petition), 148-49 (proposed findings of fact and conclusions 

of law). Hanks renews these arguments on appeal. Appellant’s Br. pp. 19-22.

[43] That claim, however, was never resolved by the court below. See Appellant’s 

App. pp. 152-157 (trial court’s memorandum order denying relief, never 

discussing or deciding the voluntariness issue). Post-conviction courts are 

required “to make specific findings of fact, and conclusions of law on all issues 

presented” by a petition for post-conviction relief. P-C.R. 1(6). The State has 

not addressed the voluntariness claim with separate argument on appeal. See

Appellee’s Br. pp. 14-15 (treating ineffective assistance and voluntariness claims 

as indistinguishable).

[44] “[V]oluntariness [of pleas] is distinct from ineffective assistance of counsel.” 

Cornelious v. State, 846 N.E.2d 354, 358 (Ind. Ct. App. 2006) (citing State v. 

Moore, 678 N.E.2d 1258, 1266 (Ind. 1997)), trans. denied. The two claims are 

reviewed under different standards. Id. “Voluntariness in Indiana practice 
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focuses on whether the defendant knowingly and freely entered the plea, in 

contrast to ineffective assistance, which turns on the performance of counsel 

and resulting prejudice.” Id. (internal quotation and citation omitted). 

“[D]efendants who can show that they were coerced or misled into pleading 

guilty by the judge, prosecutor or defense counsel will present colorable claims 

for relief.” Moore, 678 N.E.2d at 1266. Further, a plea may be involuntary 

because improperly induced by unfulfillable promises. Lineberry v. State, 747 

N.E.2d 1151 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001). 

[45] Hanks is entitled to be heard and receive the post-conviction court’s ruling on 

this issue. We remand for a determination of whether Hanks was misled by 

Sturgeon’s omission or improperly induced to accept the open offer on the 

incorrect understanding that the open offer was more favorable than the thirtyyear offer.

Conclusion

[46] For all of these reasons, we affirm the post-conviction court’s denial of Hanks’s 

ineffective assistance claim. We remand for judgment on whether Hanks’s plea 

was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary in light of the applicable standard.

[47] Affirmed in part and remanded.

Robb, J., and Brown, J., concur.