Opinion ID: 1353958
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pretrial Statements

Text: Sanders contends that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress statements that he gave to police before trial. Trial counsel was not ineffective because he failed to seek suppression of Sanders' pretrial statements. We agree with the trial court that Sanders cannot establish prejudice connected with this claim because he has not shown that a motion to suppress would have been successful. On the contrary, his alleged assertions of a desire to stop further questioning or to consult with an attorney do not even rise to the level of being equivocal. His claim that his statements were involuntary due to his state of mind is conclusory and unsupported. In addition, in making a decision on prejudice, the Court should consider all the evidence presented against Sanders. Even if a motion to suppress his statement had been made and sustained, considering the strength of the other evidence presented against Sanders, the outcome of the trial would not have been different.