Opinion ID: 185166
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Merits of COA Request

Text: 13 To determine whether Mitchell should receive a COA to pursue his appeal, we ask whether he has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). [T]he petitioner need not show that he should prevail on the merits.... Rather, he must demonstrate that the issues are debatable among jurists of reason; that a court could resolve the issues [in a different manner]; or that the questions are adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further. Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880, 893 n.4 (1983) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Byrd v. Henderson, 119 F.3d 34, 36 n.3 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (holding that Barefoot standard applies to COA requests). Under this standard, we grant Mitchell's COA request on his claim of per se ineffective assistance of counsel. 14 Normally, to make a successful ineffective assistance of counsel claim under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant must show (1) that counsel's performance was deficient, falling 'below an objective standard of reasonableness,' and (2) that the deficient performance prejudiced the defendant, depriving him of a fair trial. United States v. Bruce, 89 F.3d 886, 893 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (quoting Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 688 (1984)). Mitchell formulates two theories of ineffectiveness. The first is that Robertson's trial performance was deficient because he failed to produce Sonya Allen as a witness who would have, he claims, corroborated his defense. Certainly, as we observed in United States v. Debango, 780 F.2d 81 (D.C. Cir. 1986), [t]he complete failure to investigate potentially corroborating witnesses ... can hardly be considered a tactical decision. Id. at 85. But, as we further recalled in Debango, [e]ven if counsel's performance fell below prevailing professional norms ... Strickland requires that a defendant establish prejudice. Id. The prejudice that Mitchell claims arose from the absence of Allen's testimony, however, was plainly insufficient to satisfy the second prong of the Strickland test. 2 To bypass this hurdle, Mitchell invokes the rule that prejudice can be presumed if a defendant can show that 'a conflict of interest actually affected the adequacy of [the attorney's] representation....'  Bruce, 89 F.3d at 893 (quoting Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 349 (1980)). Claiming that Robertson was suspended from the practice of law in the District of Columbia during Mitchell's trial, appellant argues that Robertson had a conflict of interest because he was preoccupied with his own disciplinary proceedings and fear of sanctions and wanted to keep his status concealed, so he did not expend extra funds reimbursable under the Criminal Justice Act as appointed counsel to seek out Ms. Allen. 15 The district court did not resolve the issue of Robertson's bar status. The court noted that Robertson was in fact admitted to practice before the district court during the relevant period, but accepted the proposition that this admission may have been under questionable circumstances. The district court thus assumed for the sake of argument that Robertson was suspended. In any event, the suspension was not in any way related to Robertson's conduct in representing Mitchell. 16 Even if we also assume that Robertson was suspended, Mitchell's conflict of interest scenario is simply too hypothetical to gain him relief. There is no evidence that Robertson would have needed extraordinary funds to find Allen or that such expenditures would somehow trigger a review of his bar qualifications. We have been careful to guard against defendants' attempts to force their ineffective assistance claims into the 'actual conflict of interest' framework ... and thereby supplant the strict Strickland standard with the far more lenient Cuyler test. Bruce, 89 F.3d at 893; see also United States v. Taylor, 139 F.3d 924, 930-32 (D.C. Cir. 1998).Mitchell's conflict theory is such an attempt. See United States v. Maria-Martinez, 143 F.3d 914, 916-17 (5th Cir. 1998) ([A]n undisclosed lack of credentials ... provide[s] an incentive for lackluster representation, the theory goes, because the attorney will be concerned about drawing attention to himself and encouraging an inquiry into his background.), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1107 (1999). We could as easily say that far from having a conflict of interest, Robertson had an incentive to do his best to avoid a later ineffective assistance claim and the exposure of his status. United States v. Leggett, 81 F.3d 220, 226-27 (D.C. Cir. 1996); see also Vance v. Lehman, 64 F.3d 119, 126 (3d Cir. 1995). We conclude that Mitchell's ineffectiveness claim on these grounds does not rise to the level of a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right. 17 Mitchell's second argument in support of his ineffective assistance of counsel claim has slightly more promise. Based on a different line of precedent, he contends that Robertson's suspension calls for a finding of per se ineffectiveness. In Harrison v. United States, 387 F.2d 203 (D.C. Cir. 1967), rev'd on other grounds, 392 U.S. 219 (1968), where an exconvict posed as an attorney, we held that the requirements of the Sixth Amendment are not satisfied when the accused is 'represented' by a layman masquerading as a qualified attorney. Id. at 212. Mitchell candidly admits that other courts have rejected a per se ineffectiveness rule for attorneys who have been licensed to practice law and later subjected to discipline such as suspension, but claims that Harrison could support such a rule in an issue of first impression in this circuit. In his view, a generous reading could extend Harrison and hold that a suspended attorney is not a qualified attorney because he is not currently admitted to the practice of the law, no matter how intelligent or well educated he may be. Id. 18 It appears that most courts facing the issue have held that suspension or disbarment alone is not enough to make an attorney per se ineffective. See, e.g., Reese v. Peters, 926 F.2d 668, 670 (7th Cir. 1991); Waterhouse v. Rodriguez, 848 F.2d 375, 383 (2d Cir. 1988); United States v. Mouzin, 785 F.2d 682, 696-97 (9th Cir. 1986); United States v. Myles, 10 F. Supp. 2d 31, 36 (D.D.C. 1998); see generally Jay M. Zitter, Annotation, Criminal Defendant's Representation by Person Not Licensed to Practice Law as Violation of Right to Counsel, 19 A.L.R. 5th 351 (1994). However, a few jurists appear to have thought otherwise. See In re Johnson, 822 P.2d 1317, 1323-24 (Cal. 1992) (applying California Constitution); Ohio v. Newcombe, 577 N.E.2d 125, 126 (Ohio Ct. App. 1989); Mouzin, 785 F.2d at 703-04 (Ferguson, J., dissenting).To more clearly define the contours of the issue in this circuit, we grant a COA on Harrison's claim of per se ineffective assistance of counsel.