Opinion ID: 864476
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether buck received ineffective

Text: ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL. ¶12. On the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel, we agree with the Court of Appeals that Buck's representation before the youth court and circuit court was not ineffective. At the youth court proceeding, Buck was adamant about being transferred to circuit court despite her attorney's professed opposition to doing so. As for the guilty plea in circuit court, we echo the Court of Appeals' observation that Buck's circuit court counsel opposed her entering an open plea. The rule regarding ineffective assistance of counsel in the context of a guilty plea is that when a convicted defendant challenges his guilty plea on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, he must show unprofessional errors of substantial gravity. Beyond that, he must show that those errors proximately resulted in his guilty plea and that but for counsel's errors he would not have entered the plea. Reynolds v. State, 521 So. 2d 914, 918 (Miss. 1988). Buck has failed to establish that her representation prejudiced her. On the contrary, all of the prejudice she sustained came of her own volition despite the opposition of her attorneys. We therefore affirm the circuit court and the Court of Appeals on this issue.