Opinion ID: 1616730
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Ineffective-Assistance-of-Counsel Claim: Failure to Perform an Essential Duty.

Text: A. General principles. In order to establish the first prong of an ineffective-assistance claim, the defendant must show that trial counsel's performance was outside the range of normal competency. DeVoss, 648 N.W.2d at 64. This task is not an easy one as there is a strong presumption trial counsel's conduct fell within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance. Id. The court measures defense counsel's performance by standards consistent with `prevailing professional norms.' Ledezma v. State, 626 N.W.2d 134, 142 (Iowa 2001) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. at 2065, 80 L.Ed.2d at 694). Several principles are important in assessing defense counsel's performance. Trial counsel has no duty to raise an issue that has no merit. State v. Rice, 543 N.W.2d 884, 888 (1996). In situations where the merit of a particular issue is not clear from Iowa law, the test is whether a normally competent attorney would have concluded that the question... was not worth raising. State v. Schoelerman, 315 N.W.2d 67, 72 (Iowa 1982); accord State v. Westeen, 591 N.W.2d 203, 210 (Iowa 1999). Miscalculated trial strategies and mere mistakes in judgment normally do not rise to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel. Ledezma, 626 N.W.2d at 143. The fact that a particular decision was made for tactical reasons does not, however, automatically immunize the decision from a Sixth Amendment challenge. See Kellogg v. Scurr, 741 F.2d 1099, 1102 (8th Cir.1984). That decision must still satisfy the ultimate test: whether under the entire record and totality of the circumstances counsel performed competently. Osborn v. State, 573 N.W.2d 917, 922 (Iowa 1998). B. Application to facts of this case. As we have already determined, the issues defense counsel is criticized for ignoring have merit: the prosecutor engaged in objectionable conduct and this conduct denied the defendant a fair trial. The question, then, is whether counsel performed competently in failing to object to the county attorney's questions and argument and in failing to request a mistrial. We could preserve the defendant's ineffective-assistance claim to provide counsel with an opportunity to explain his conduct, but there really are only two plausible explanations: (1) counsel reasonably believed such objections or requests had no merit, or (2) counsel acquiesced in the prosecutor's misconduct as a matter of trial strategy. Regrettably, we think neither explanation is a sufficient excuse for trial counsel's failures. Although there has been no Iowa case determining the propriety of asking a defendant to comment on the veracity of another witness, the issue was raised in Bayles, where this court noted a split of authority. 551 N.W.2d at 610. In addition, just two years prior to the trial in this matter, this court held that comments similar to those made by the county attorney in this case were clearly improper. Rutledge, 600 N.W.2d at 325 (prosecutor stated defense witnesses outright lied and can't tell the truth). Given these prior decisions, counsel could not have reasonably concluded that objections to the prosecutor's cross-examination and closing argument were not worth making. Furthermore, we have held that trial counsel's failure to raise an issue of first impression cannot be excused as a judgment call left to the discretion of trial counsel. Westeen, 591 N.W.2d at 210. The only remaining explanation, then, for trial counsel's failure to challenge the county attorney's conduct is trial strategy. Had the county attorney's improper comments in the present case been an isolated occurrence, we could understand a decision by defense counsel to let them go without objection as a sound trial tactic. When, however, the comments related to a critical issue in the case, were designed to inflame the jurors against the defendant, and were part of an overall plan by the prosecution to inappropriately rest a determination of guilt solely on whether the defendant or a police officer lied, the risk of prejudice was far too great to permit the prosecutor's tactics to continue without objection. Significantly, the county attorney's most egregious argument occurred in his rebuttal. Consequently, defense counsel had no opportunity to minimize any resulting prejudice or to focus the jury on the determinative issues through additional argument. Thus, absent an objection or a request for a mistrial, there was no way to address the prosecutor's misconduct. Under these circumstances, we do not think defense counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's conduct can be justified as a trial strategy that fell within the range of reasonable professional assistance. This conclusion brings us to the issue of prejudice.