Opinion ID: 1581793
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Prosecutorial Misconduct, Judicial Misconduct, and Statewide Conspiracy Against Caddy's Rights

Text: Caddy alleges that he was convicted due to the misconduct of the prosecution and the judges involved in his trial and also argues that this amounted to a statewide conspiracy against his rights. We first note that Caddy's appellate brief does not argue that any misconduct has tainted the instant postconviction proceeding; thus, these claims of misconduct are all collateral attacks on the prior proceedings against Caddy. We also note that Caddy's claim of prosecutorial misconduct was raised and rejected in Caddy's 1996 appeal, and cannot be relitigated here. See State v. Hess, 261 Neb. 368, 622 N.W.2d 891 (2001). More significant, however, is the fact that Caddy has not assigned in this court that his counsel in the district court in 1996 was ineffective in failing to raise these issues on appeal. When a plaintiff seeking postconviction relief has different counsel on appeal than at trial, the plaintiff's motion for postconviction relief is procedurally barred if the plaintiff (1) knew of the issues assigned in the postconviction motion at the time of the plaintiff's direct appeal, (2) failed to assign those issues on direct appeal, and (3) did not assign as error the failure of appellate counsel on direct appeal to raise the issues assigned in the postconviction motion. State v. Williams, 259 Neb. 234, 609 N.W.2d 313 (2000). Caddy has failed, in the instant case, to assign error regarding his appellate counsel in 1996 and has assigned error only regarding his appellate counsel in 1998 relating to failure to properly perfect the appeal. Consequently, Caddy's arguments are procedurally barred, as they either were or should have been raised in his 1996 and 1998 appeals. Caddy's assignments of error on these issues are without merit.