Opinion ID: 775311
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ineffective Assistance of Trial Counsel--Double Jeopardy

Text: 31 As discussed above, see supra, at 87 & n.2, this claim was never fairly presented to a state court for review. The State argues that this claim is unexhausted and, therefore, Aparicio's petition should be dismissed in its entirety for being a mixed petition containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims. Rose, 455 U.S. at 510 (1982). 5 We believe it is doubtful, though, that any avenue remains open to Aparicio in state court, and thus that the absence of available State corrective process renders this claim exhausted. 28 U.S.C. 2254(b)(1)(B)(i). 32 Petitioner was entitled to one (and only one) appeal to the Appellate Division and one request for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals, both of which he pursued long ago. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 450.10(1); N.Y. Court R. 500.10(a).New York does not otherwise permit collateral attacks on a conviction when the defendant unjustifiably failed to raise the issue on direct appeal. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 440.10(2)(c). The nagging question here is whether Petitioner's failure to assert ineffective assistance of trial counsel (concerning the double jeopardy issue) might be forgiven under 440.10 because of the ineffective assistance of Petitioner's appellate counsel. 33 Given the Appellate Division's determination in the coram nobis proceeding that Petitioner failed to establish that he was denied effective assistance of appellate counsel, People v. Aparicio, 696 N.Y.S.2d at 697, we are persuaded that it is most unlikely that another state court would suddenly find the performance of Petitioner's appellate counsel to be so ineffective as to justify Petitioner's failure to include this ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim in his direct appeal. Thus, any state court to which Petitioner might now present this claim would almost certainly find it procedurally barred. Because requiring a petitioner to seek additional state court review when the results have effectively been predetermined, Castille v. Peoples, 489 U.S. 346, 350, 103 L. Ed. 2d 380, 109 S. Ct. 1056 (1989), is inconsistent with the purposes of 2254(b), we deem this particular claim exhausted. 34 Of course, even though the claim is exhausted, it is still procedurally defaulted under Coleman. 501 U.S. at 735. That procedural default can only be cured by a showing of cause for the default plus prejudice, or a showing of actual innocence. Id. at 748-49, 111 S. Ct. 2546. And, of course, just as in our imagined state court proceeding, the only cause Aparicio can offer for the procedural default would be the ineffective assistance of his appellate counsel. 35 A defense counsel's ineffectiveness in failing to properly preserve a claim for review in state court can suffice to establish cause for a procedural default only when the counsel's ineptitude rises to the level of a violation of a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Edwards v. Carpenter, 529 U.S. 446, 451, 146 L. Ed. 2d 518, 120 S. Ct. 1587 (2000); Murray, 477 U.S. at 488-89. In other words, ineffective assistance adequate to establish cause for the procedural default of some other constitutional claim is itself an independent constitutional claim. Edwards, 529 U.S. at 451. 36 Our holding later in this opinion that Petitioner's double jeopardy claim is without merit, see infra, at 98 & n.10, in conjunction with the Supreme Court's holdings in Carrier and Edwards, compels us to conclude that Petitioner has not presented an adequate cause for his procedural default here. Thus, we are--and the district court was--precluded from reaching the merits of this claim. 37