Opinion ID: 76322
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Procedural Due Process and Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Text: 49 A defendant who was at the pertinent time competent to stand trial is not entitled to a new trial on the procedural ground that the trial judge in his initial trial failed to hold a competency hearing. James v. Singletary, 957 F.2d 1562, 1571-72 (11th Cir.1992) (failure to hold competency hearing harmless error if defendant was competent at the time of trial). In a similar way, defense lawyers cannot have improperly prejudiced a defendant — depriving him of his constitutional right to counsel — by not asserting the need for (or appealing about) a competency hearing when the defendant was, in fact, competent for the pertinent period. 50 The Alabama Rule 32 court decided that Moore was, in legal effect, competent because his incompetency — if any in fact — was caused by his concerted and calculated strategy of avoiding food and drink to stop the trial: Moore, by his own conduct, forfeited his right to be competent at trial. This decision was not an unreasonable one in the light of Supreme Court precedent, so, Moore's other claims must also fail. If he was, in effect, competent, the failure of lawyers to ask for or of the trial court to hold a competency hearing cannot be prejudicial enough to justify habeas relief. 10