Opinion ID: 2045722
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: ineffective assistance: deficient performance

Text: [9, 10] ¶ 22. The failure of Smith's counsel to timely object to the prosecutor's breach is the basis for the ineffective assistance claim here. The right to effective assistance of counsel derives from the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art. I, sec. 7 of the Wisconsin constitution. Both provisions grant the right to a fair trial, including the assistance of counsel in criminal cases. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 684-86. There are two components to a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel: a demonstration that counsel's performance was deficient, and a demonstration that such deficient performance prejudiced the defendant. Id. at 687. The defendant has the burden of proof on both components. Id. at 688. [11] ¶ 23. To prove deficient performance, the defendant must establish that his or her counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the `counsel' guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. State v. [Edward] Johnson, 153 Wis. 2d 121, 127, 449 N.W.2d 845 (1990) (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687). The defendant must overcome a strong presumption that his or her counsel acted reasonably within professional norms. Id. The Strickland Court outlined certain basic duties that an attorney owes the criminal defense client. Among those is the duty to bring to bear such skill and knowledge as will render the trial [or proceeding] a reliable adversarial testing process. 466 U.S. at 688 (citations omitted). [12] ¶ 24. Normally, judicial scrutiny of an attorney's performance will be highly deferential. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689. The court must determine whether, under all the circumstances, counsel's conduct was outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance. Id. at 690. In Strickland, the ineffectiveness claim was based on a failure to investigate. The inquiry then involved information supplied to counsel by the defendant client. The Court noted that counsel's actions are often based on informed strategic choices made by the defendant. Id. at 691. ¶ 25. Here, however, Smith's claim is based on a failure to object to adversary counsel's breach of a negotiated agreement. No further information or investigation was required to enable defense counsel to offer an objection at the sentencing hearing. Moreover, the failure to object flew in the face of the informed strategic choice made by Smith earlier when he entered into the plea agreement. The failure to object constituted a breakdown in the adversarial system. [13] ¶26. The State concedes that defense counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's sentencing recommendation was deficient performance. The trial court so held. The court of appeals agreed with that conclusion. The court of appeals held defense counsel's failure to immediately object to the prosecutor's clear and absolute breach of the plea agreement to be deficient performance. We therefore conclude that defense counsel's failure to immediately object to the prosecutor's sentence recommendation, a recommendation that clearly breached Smith's plea agreement, was not reasonable conduct within professional norms and constitutes deficient performance. [11]