Opinion ID: 77443
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: State Motion for Post-Conviction Relief

Text: 28 Sullivan filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief in Alabama Circuit Court pursuant to Alabama Rule of Criminal Procedure 32 and subsequently amended the petition. In his amended Rule 32 petition Sullivan argued, inter alia, that his trial counsel, John T. Kirk (Kirk), was ineffective for failing to interview or call Sullivan's daughter Renee as a witness during the trial. At the time of the murder, Renee was five years old, and Sullivan claimed she witnessed his fight with Smith. The state circuit court held a hearing at which most of Sullivan's subpoenaed witnesses, including Kirk, failed to appear. Sullivan asked that the state circuit court admit Renee's testimony to support his claim that Kirk was ineffective, but the state circuit court refused to hear her testimony, stating that [i]t doesn't have anything to do with the ineffective assistance of counsel, what she may have witnessed, and her testimony was not important because they were not going to retry the case. 29 The state circuit court denied Sullivan's petition, and he appealed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Sullivan argued that, although he had advised Kirk that Renee was a witness three months before trial and asked Kirk several times during trial to call her as a witness, Kirk failed to interview her or to investigate the information she had. Sullivan maintained that the lower court erred in denying his Rule 32 petition without hearing Renee's or Kirk's testimony. The state prosecutor conceded that the case should be remanded for entry of a final order with specific fact findings. 30 The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the case for the state circuit court to state with particularity its reasoning and findings for denying Sullivan's Rule 32 petition. On remand, the state circuit court issued a brief order stating that Sullivan failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that he was entitled to relief for ineffective assistance of counsel. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed without substantial discussion.