Court Opinion

ID: 9512329
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:13:21.318432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:21.638531
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE NELSON,
specially concurring.
¶16 I concur in the result of the Court’s Opinion. However, I would not reach the second prong of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 2064 (1984), see Opinion, ¶ 11, because Becker has failed to meet his burden under the first, most elemental prong. Specifically, Becker has failed to show that his appellate counsel’s performance did not pass constitutional muster. He did not offer any *166evidence in the postconviction proceedings of prevailing professional norms as applied to his counsel’s performance, nor did he demonstrate how his counsel’s conduct fell below an objective standard of reasonableness measured under those norms and in light of the surrounding circumstances. See Whitlow v. State, 2008 MT 140, ¶¶ 20-21, 32-33, 36-40, 343 Mont. 90, 183 P.3d 861. Appellate counsel’s gratuitously falling on his sword is self-serving and is insufficient to meet this standard.
¶17 I specially concur.