Opinion ID: 1585194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: was johnson denied the effective assistance of his counsel in violation of the sixth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments to the constitution of the united states and article 3, sections 14, 26 and 28 of the mississippi constitution?

Text: This point consists of several allegations that Johnson's counsel was ineffective, with numerous individual claims. We need not specifically address each point, for we find the overall issue of ineffective assistance of counsel to be procedurally barred and directly controlled by our holding in Evans. Therein, we barred an identical claim made in a second post-conviction proceeding, such as this one, where Evans failed to show cause for his failure to raise the claim in his first post-conviction action. We hold here that Johnson waived the issue of effective assistance of trial counsel when he declined to assert the point in his error coram nobis pleading, in 1984. Furthermore, he has not evidenced sufficient cause to excuse this waiver, since records reflect that trial counsel exited state court proceedings at the conclusion of the direct appeal and did not participate in the presentation of the error coram nobis pleading. In sum, the claim of ineffective assistance is not procedurally viable.