Opinion ID: 2492624
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Admission of Johnston's Confession to Prior Murder

Text: Johnston also claims that his trial counsel was ineffective for allowing his confession to another murder to be introduced at trial. During the guilt phase, the State read into evidence Johnston's confession made to the jury during the penalty phase of his prior trial for the first-degree murder of Leanne Coryell. [5] Johnston argues that defense counsel during the Coryell penalty phase should have known about the future charge forthcoming for the murder of Ms. Nugent and was ineffective for allowing Johnston to confess to the murder of Ms. Coryell without warning him that such a confession could be used against him in a future prosecution. We disagree. Johnston raises a claim that is not cognizable and therefore does not merit relief. It is axiomatic that an ineffective assistance of counsel claim must be based on the actions of defense counsel in the trial under review. Here, Johnston is claiming that his defense counsel was deficient under Strickland in a prior, unrelated murder trial. The Coryell and Nugent trials were entirely distinct, separated in time by several months, with different juries, different victims, and different defense teams. Defense counsel's allegedly deficient performance at one trial cannot constitute ineffective assistance at another, entirely separate trial. Johnston has not alleged in this claim that any actions taken by defense counsel in the case under review were deficient. Therefore, this ineffective assistance of counsel claim must fail.