Opinion ID: 1702141
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: error assigned by appellate counsel

Text: Under Nebraska law, in order to raise the issue of ineffective assistance of trial counsel where appellate counsel is different from trial counsel, a defendant must raise on direct appeal any issue of ineffective assistance of trial counsel which is known to the defendant or is apparent from the record, or the issue will be procedurally barred on postconviction review. [3] Our rule differs from that announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in Massaro v. United States , [4] which permits an ineffective assistance of counsel claim to be brought in a collateral postconviction proceeding regardless of whether it was raised on direct appeal. This court has not adopted the federal rule, noting that, pursuant to Massaro v. United States , it is not a constitutional requirement. [5] But the fact that an ineffective assistance of counsel claim is raised on direct appeal does not necessarily mean that it can be resolved. In most instances, it cannot, because the trial record reviewed on appeal is devoted to issues of guilt or innocence and usually will not disclose the facts necessary to decide either prong of the Strickland [v. Washington [6] ] analysis. [7] We have generally reached ineffective assistance of counsel claims on direct appeal only in those instances where it was clear from the record that such claims were without merit [8] or in the rare case where trial counsel's error was so egregious and resulted in such a high level of prejudice [that] no tactic or strategy can overcome the effect of the error, which effect was a fundamentally unfair trial. [9] With these principles in mind, we turn to the ineffective assistance claims which Young, through his appellate counsel, has asserted on direct appeal. To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington , the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient and that this deficient performance actually prejudiced his or her defense. [10]