Court Opinion

ID: 9691357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:27:10.907318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:17.536183
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result reached in the majority opinion. I am, however, concerned with the disposition of Bowers’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. In State v. Ricehill, 415 N.W.2d 481 (N.D.1987), we cited with approval the procedures established in Read v. State, 430 So.2d 832 (Miss.1983), for the review of ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims on *297direct appeal from a judgment of conviction. Those procedures provide for reaching the merits of the ineffectiveness issue only where the record affirmatively shows ineffectiveness of constitutional dimensions or the parties stipulate that the record is adequate and the court determines that findings of fact by a trial judge able to consider the demeanor of witnesses, etc., are not needed. In other instances the defendant is permitted without prejudice to raise the ineffectiveness issue in an appropriate post-conviction proceeding.
The posture of the case before us appears to be halfway between these procedures. There is no stipulation that the record is adequate. However, this is not a direct appeal from a judgment of conviction but rather is an appeal from an order denying a motion to withdraw a guilty plea. Thus Bowers had an opportunity to make at least a partial record on this issue in the trial court. On the other hand, as the majority opinion observes, the issue could be more effectively determined through the Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act which provides for an evidentiary hearing.
I agree with the majority opinion that, on the record before us, Bowers was not denied effective assistance of counsel. However, I do not know what additional evidence might be forthcoming at a post-conviction hearing and therefore I do not construe the majority opinion to foreclose his opportunity to further advance that issue in a post-conviction proceeding if additional evidence can be adduced. See State v. Denney, 417 N.W.2d 181 (N.D.1987).
MESCHKE, J., concurs.