Court Opinion

ID: 9876689
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-27 15:29:51.769948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:46:37.891247
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I agree with our Court’s opinion that there was gross ineffective assistance of counsel here. The state courts and the district court below recognized the failure of counsel to represent his client, a failure that seems to have led directly to what turns out to be a life sentence. I disagree, however, that we should overlook the error. I would issue the writ and let the state retry the defendant in a trial in which he has decent counsel and the opportunity to receive a more humane sentence. Our criminal justice system should not allow a man to be condemned to life imprisonment *790when he has been so egregiously deprived of counsel;