Court Opinion

ID: 9669628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:02:01.780131+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:58.795259
License: Public Domain

MORGAN, Justice
(concurring in result).
On the question of whether this court has adopted the Strickland v. Washington test, I submit that to date we have not. As Circuit Judge Moses pointed out in Lee v. Solem, 405 N.W.2d 56, 57 (S.D.1987): “When reviewing [ineffective assistance of counsel] claims this court has applied both the more stringent standard of South Dakota and the less stringent standard presented in Strickland v. Washington.” Judge Moses quoted from Loop v. Solem, 398 N.W.2d 140,142 (S.D.1986), wherein we said that a defendant “must normally fulfill the twofold test stated in Strickland v. Washington.” (Emphasis in original.) I do not think that Loop fully adopted the Strickland test, nor do I read State v. Anderson, 387 N.W.2d 544 (S.D.1986), as doing so. The quotation Justice Henderson relies on for that proposition is taken from *65his special concurrence. We have never considered special writings as precedent.
I would concur outright in an opinion that formally adopts the Strickland test. We do not have to rely on any of our previous decisions nor on the multitude of special writings cited in the majority opinion. Since the Strickland test is less stringent than our South Dakota standards and since ineffective assistance of counsel involves a federal constitutional question, the lesser standard should be and is applicable. I agree that by applying the Strickland test to the factual situation in this case, the trial court did not commit error in denying Woods habeas corpus relief.