Opinion ID: 2975867
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Recently discovered evidence

Text: Ivory asserts that the ruling of the Michigan State Bar suspending Gordon’s license and the admissions by Gordon’s counsel at those disciplinary proceedings entitle Ivory to at least an evidentiary hearing on the question of Gordon’s effectiveness. But Ivory himself argued, in a grievance filed just one month after his criminal trial, that Gordon’s assistance at trial was ineffective for multiple reasons and that Gordon “should be tested for drugs.” His September 1998 grievance thus demonstrates that Ivory was aware of both Gordon’s allegedly ineffective assistance and his counsel’s drug use well in advance of filing a direct appeal. As Ivory acknowledges, the newly discovered evidence he cites simply serves to “corroborate[]” his ineffective-assistance-oftrial-counsel claim. The new evidence cannot, therefore, excuse Ivory’s failure to raise the claim on direct appeal because he was obviously on notice of both Gordon’s alleged ineffectiveness and the possible reasons for it prior to filing his direct appeal.