Opinion ID: 1705049
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Framing the Issue of Ineffective Assistance of Appellate Counsel.

Text: Because any claim of the ineffective assistance of trial counsel regarding the plea offer could have been adjudicated on the basis of the trial record, it is Knaffla barred and cannot be brought as a direct claim by postconviction petition. Such a claim can only survive in a postconviction proceeding as an indirect claim encompassed within Leake's claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. This means that the issue raised by Leake's postconviction petition is whether appellate counsel's failure to argue on direct appeal the ineffective assistance of trial counsel regarding the plea offer fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. Although that issue includes the underlying question of whether trial counsel was ineffective in advising Leake on the plea offer, the answer to that underlying question does not necessarily end the inquiry because appellate counsel may have had legitimate reasons of appellate strategy to not argue that underlying question. For example, appellate counsel on direct appeal sought to obtain a judgment of acquittal for insufficient evidence, a new trial for inconsistent verdicts or prosecutorial misconduct, or elimination of the sentencing enhancement factor found by the sentencing court. Appellate counsel did not seek to reinstate the state's plea offer and may have concluded that an effort to do so would weaken the challenges to the conviction. Further, to substantiate this claim for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, Leake must show that the result would have been different. Wilson v. State, 582 N.W.2d 882, 885 (Minn.1998). Thus, in addition to showing that appellate counsel was ineffective, Leake must show that: 1. If the issue of the ineffective assistance of trial counsel had been raised on direct appeal, it would have been successful in obtaining a remand. 2. On remand, Leake would be able to show that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to give or in giving incorrect advice on the plea offer and that, if trial counsel had been effective, he would have accepted the offer and entered a plea of guilty.