Court Opinion

ID: 9793732
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:52:07.402164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:42.785584
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting from denial of Petition for Rehearing.
Three members of this Court today close the state avenues of appeal for Mr. Estes by refusing to rehear appeals of both his conviction for rape and his petition for post-conviction relief and denial of a motion for a new trial. The majority takes this action despite the fact that Estes’ counsel has directed the Court’s attention to the recent case of Kimmelman v. Morrison, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 2574, 91 L.Ed.2d 305 (1986). The Kimmelman case was neither briefed nor argued when these appeals were first heard.
In Kimmelman, the United States Supreme Court was confronted, as we are here, with a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in a rape trial. There defense counsel conducted no pretrial discovery which led to the “surprise” introduction of an illegally seized bedsheet that contained incriminating evidence. Here Estes’ counsel at his trial conducted little or no discovery, did not investigate the sexual background of the prosecutrix in preparation for cross-examination, and did not prepare to counter the introduction of incriminating scientific evidence of the state. In affidavits submitted in support of Estes’ motion for a new trial, two of the state’s scientific experts explained that the results were inconclusive at best and possibly exculpatory. Yet, due to ineffective cross-examination, the weakness of this evidence was never adequately presented to the jury.
In Kimmelman, the Court agreed with the lower court that the first requirement of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1976), incompetence of counsel, was met and remanded for a determination of the other Stickland requirement that the defendant had been prejudiced by his attorney’s incompetence. Yet this Court, when presented with defense counsel sins much more egregious than those established in Kimmelman refuses to reconsider Estes’ appeal in light of the recent guidance provided by our brethren in Washington, D.C.
Once again this Court avoids facing up to its own responsibilities in favor of letting “George” do it.