Opinion ID: 1804987
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Habeas Issue 3: Appellate Counsel's Ineffectiveness

Text: Windom argues that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to assert fundamental error with respect to instances during which the jury was permitted to hear improper prosecutorial arguments. When evaluating an ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim raised in a writ of habeas corpus, this Court must determine first, whether the alleged omissions are of such magnitude as to constitute a serious error or substantial deficiency falling measurably outside the range of professionally acceptable performance and, second, whether the deficiency in performance compromised the appellate process to such a degree as to undermine confidence in the correctness of the result. Pope v. Wainwright, 496 So.2d 798, 800 (Fla.1986). The defendant must allege a specific, serious omission or overt act upon which the claim of ineffective assistance can be based. Freeman v. State, 761 So.2d 1055, 1069 (Fla.2000). Fundamental error is error that reaches down into the validity of the trial itself to the extent that the verdict of guilty could not have been obtained without the alleged error. Kilgore v. State, 688 So.2d 895, 898 (Fla.1996). Windom's appellate counsel was not ineffective for failing to assert fundamental error with regard to the prosecutor's statements during trial. The record does not support Windom's contentions that the prosecutor's comments were improper. Appellate counsel is not ineffective for failing to raise nonmeritorious claims. Moore v. State, 820 So.2d 199, 209 (Fla.2002). We therefore deny this claim.