Court Opinion

ID: 9577817
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:38:28.010254+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:21:20.525136
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I agree with all that is in the opinion. However, I wish to point out that, with respect to Division 2, appellant raises only a federal constitutional claim, under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Hence the ruling is limited to that ground. Lee v. State, 177 Ga. App. 698 (340 SE2d 658) (1986).
The federal test to be applied to a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel appears in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (104 SC 2052, 80 LE2d 674) (1984). Deficiency and prejudice are the two prongs of that test. An objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms is the measuring device for determining whether counsel’s representation was deficient. Strickland, supra at 687-688. Thus the statement taken from Trenor v. State, 252 Ga. 264 (313 SE2d 482) (1984) must be viewed in that light. Trenor preceded Strickland by a few months and of course is not guided by the concept as expressed by the U. S. Supreme Court.
Trenor, which by the way does not clarify whether it is ruling on federal or state constitutional grounds or both, states that what a criminal defendant is entitled to is “counsel rendering reasonably effective assistance.” Trenor, supra at 267. The supreme law of the land is that “When a convicted defendant complains of the ineffectiveness of counsel’s assistance, the defendant must show that counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness . . . The proper measure of attorney performance remains simply reasonableness under prevailing professional norms.” Strickland, supra at 687-688. Insofar as the Trenor “test” means the same thing, and requires the same degree of effectiveness of assistance as the “standard” spelled out in Strickland for application in the first part of the Strickland two-prong test, it is a proper statement of federal constitutional law. Brogdon v. State, 255 Ga. 64, 67 (3) (335 SE2d 383) *541(1985). Since I would view it as essentially the same, and although a direct application of the Strickland-fashioned standard in the language of the U. S. Supreme Court would now be more appropriate, I concur. Sims v. Ga., 385 U. S. 538, 544 (87 SC 639, 17 LE2d 593) (1967).
Decided June 30, 1986.
P. Craig Davis, for appellant.
Willis B. Sparks III, District Attorney, Thomas J. Matthews, Virgil L. Adams, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.