Opinion ID: 710698
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Competence of Counsel

Text: 40 Stirn's final contention is that Stiley's failure to submit his oral representations in affidavit form violated his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. To establish a Sixth Amendment violation based on competence of counsel, a defendant must show: 1) counsel was ineffective; and 2) the ineffective assistance prejudiced the defense. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687. 41 Stirn contends that comparison of the power records between the Gordon house and its neighboring house should have been presented in affidavit form to show that the excessive power usage claim, was misleading. As explained above, however, the power records were not necessary to a finding of probable cause to search the Gordon house, in light of the results of the Empire house search. Thus, even accepting that this information should have been redacted from the Gordon affidavit, a magistrate still had probable cause to issue the search warrant. Accordingly, Stirn was not prejudiced by Stiley's failure to provide the oral representations in affidavit form; therefore, he cannot prevail on a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel.