Court Opinion

ID: 9566058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:32:53.651413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:00.149649
License: Public Domain

BENCH, Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent from the main opinion’s treatment of defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Because the record is inadequate to decide the question, we are prohibited from reaching the merits of the claim. State v. Humphries, 818 P.2d 1027, 1029 (Utah 1991); State v. Garrett, 849 P.2d 578, 580 (Utah App.), cert. denied, 860 P.2d 943 (Utah 1993). Stare decisis compels us to follow this precedent. See State v. Thurman, 846 P.2d 1256, 1269 (Utah 1993). Additionally, the election of defenses by trial counsel has traditionally been treated as a legitimate exercise of trial tactics or strategy that we will not second-guess. State v. Pascual, 804 P.2d 553, 556 (Utah App.1991) (“any election between inconsistent defenses was a legitimate exercise of trial strategy rather than ineffective assistance of counsel”); State v. Wight, 765 P.2d 12, 15 (Utah App.1988) (we will not second-guess defense counsel’s legitimate exercise of trial tactics or strategy).
Humphries held that ineffective assistance claims, raised for the first time on appeal, can only be addressed in “unusual ... peculiar, narrow circumstances.” 818 P.2d at 1029. In Garrett, we held that we can entertain an ineffective assistance of counsel claim on direct appeal “only if the record is adequate to permit a decision.” 849 P.2d at 580. We further held that a “trial record is adequate only if ‘we are not aware of any evidence or arguments which might be made that [are] not now before us.’ ” Id. (quoting Humphries, 818 P.2d at 1029). Garrett claimed, among other things, that his trial attorney was ineffective in failing to object to the prosecution’s use of its peremptory challenges in a manner he claimed was racially motivated. Id. 849 P.2d at 581; see Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 89-92, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 1719-20, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986) (racially motivated peremptory strikes are unconstitutional). In analyzing this claim, we stated:
We do not know from the record before us whether the prosecution in fact had race-neutral reasons for removing the potential jurors because defense counsel did not object. Nor do we know for certain whether defense counsel’s failure to object to strikes was deficient performance or trial strategy. Defense counsel may have had [juror language deficiencies] in mind in not objecting to the prosecution’s removal of the two potential jurors. It is also conceivable that perceptions of inattentiveness or a lack of sympathy towards defendant — or any myriad of intangible factors — could prompt competent defense counsel to forgo asserting a Batson challenge. Given the presumption that defense counsel was acting properly, we must assume that defense counsel also wanted these potential jurors removed and therefore did not raise a Batson challenge as a matter of strategy. Any evidence to the contrary is simply not in the record before us. The record is therefore inadequate for us to find on direct appeal that counsel’s performance was objectively deficient.
Garrett, 849 P.2d at 581; see also Humphries, 818 P.2d at 1029 (generally ineffective assistance of counsel claim “cannot be raised on [direct] appeal because the trial record is insufficient to allow claim to be determined”).
The record in the present case is similarly deficient as to why defense counsel did not raise certain defenses. Because the record is inadequate, we do not know whether defense counsel consciously decided, as a matter of trial strategy, not to raise the defenses — or whether defense counsel may have simply overlooked the defenses. See Garrett, 849 P.2d at 581. In any event, because the rec*141ord is inadequate, we cannot not decide defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim on direct appeal. Id.1
The main opinion’s holding mandates that defense counsel raise all conceivable defenses or be subject to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Defense counsel must do so even if he or she believes that certain defenses will actually prejudice the defendant. This is a significant departure from prior decisions of this court. In Pascual, the defendant claimed that his counsel was ineffective because he formulated a defense theory and then abandoned it mid-trial. We held that the decision to abandon the defense was nothing more than a change in trial strategy. 804 P.2d at 556. We concluded that defense counsel’s decision to utilize certain defenses and not others was a “legitimate exercise of trial strategy rather than ineffective assistance of counsel.” Id. We have long held that we will not second-guess trial counsel’s legitimate exercise of trial tactics or strategy. See Wight, 765 P.2d at 15. Therefore, in deciding the issue without an adequate record, the main opinion denies defense counsel the prerogative of deciding, as a matter of trial strategy, which defenses may best serve his or her client.
Because the record is inadequate to decide the question, I would not address defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel argument for the first time on appeal. I would therefore affirm the conviction.

. The wisdom of this rule is demonstrated by comparing the result in this case with the result in the recent case of State v. Cosey, 873 P.2d 1177 (Utah App.1994). In Cosey, the majority construed a silent record and concluded that counsel was effective in not objecting to a juror for cause, and affirmed the conviction. In this case, the majority construes a similarly silent record and concludes that counsel was ineffective in failing to raise certain defenses, and reverses the conviction. The Cosey majority, and the majority in this case, have, by failing to follow Garrett, demonstrated the problems associated with ignoring stare decisis. As Justice Zimmerman lamented:
If stare decisis had no application to a multi-panel court such as the court of appeals, it would sanction a judicial system under which the outcome of an appeal presenting a particular legal question would be dependent more on the composition of the panel hearing the case than on whether the issue has been previously addressed and decided by that court.
State v. Thurman, 846 P.2d 1256, 1269 (Utah 1993). The approach taken by the majority in this case and Cosey is wrong: we simply cannot construe a silent record to dispositively deal with an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.