Opinion ID: 1268251
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: preclusion of the assistance of counsel issue

Text: The appellant argues that he should be given a new trial because he received ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial. The state contends that he is now precluded from raising this claim since it could have been raised in his original appeal or in his original petition for post-conviction relief, which was dismissed. Grier claims his counsel at trial was ineffective because: 1) he withdrew his motion to suppress the testimony by the victim following memory enhancement hypnosis; 2) he failed to move to suppress the pretrial identification of the appellant by the victim at the preliminary hearing; 3) he failed to call his roommate and others as witnesses; 4) he failed to request a doctor to testify that Grier did not have a venereal disease; and 5) his counsel was ill during the course of the trial. We find that the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel is not properly brought before this court and contains no merit. The issue of ineffective counsel was never addressed by the trial court which heard appellant's second petition for post-conviction relief. Indeed, the issue of ineffective counsel at the trial stage was not raised prior to the appeal of the resentencing to the Court of Appeals. In pursuing post-conviction remedies, petitioner is limited to procedures set forth in the rule. State v. Gause, 112 Ariz. 296, 297, 541 P.2d 396, 397 (1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 915, 96 S.Ct. 1515, 47 L.Ed.2d 766 (1976); see also State v. Carriger, 143 Ariz. 142, 146, 692 P.2d 991, 995 (1984), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 105 S.Ct. 2347, 85 L.Ed.2d 864 (1985). 17 A.R.S. Rules of Criminal Procedure, rule 32.10 states: All grounds for relief available to petitioner must be raised by petitioner either in his petition or in the hearing thereon. Any ground not raised will be presumed waived and may not be the basis for subsequent petition unless the court finds there was reasonable ground for omitting the matter in the original petition or hearing. Grier did not present the issue of ineffective counsel at trial in any of his filings related to his second petition for post-conviction relief, nor was this topic addressed in either of the hearings prior to the resentencing. Appellant in his brief to the Court of Appeals contends that he failed to appeal the first petition for post-conviction relief because he did not know about Rule 32 and was represented by court-appointed counsel. Granted the fact that his court-appointed counsel for the first petition did not even talk with appellant prior to the court's dismissal, this does not explain why this claim was not brought up in his second petition. Grier does not argue that at the time he filed his second petition, he was still not aware of the rule and procedure. He offers no reasonable ground for omitting the matter in the original petition or hearing. Rule 32.10. We, therefore, find that he is precluded from raising the issue as the basis of this appeal.