Court Opinion

ID: 9851523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:14:27.221835+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:21:19.107481
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in the majority opinion, but write separately to point out an area of increasing concern in claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Trial counsel’s testimony in this case demonstrates a worrisome trend with serious implications for the bar and the administration of justice.
Taking the record on appeal at face value, we are presented with several possible and equally questionable explanations for trial counsel’s testimony at the hearing on the motion for new trial. Trial counsel may, despite his many years of experience, simply have been unaware of the well-established rule of law governing a defendant’s right to testify. Or he may have in fact so instructed his client in order to provide a ready-made reversible error on appeal in the event of a conviction. Or he may have testified untruthfully at the hearing on the motion for new trial in order to provide his former client with a basis for reversal of his conviction.
*170Decided February 18, 2009
Brian Steel, for appellant.
Paul L. Howard, Jr., District Attorney, Marc A. Mallon, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
None of these possibilities, which are by no means exhaustive, reflects well upon trial counsel. Whether he is so incompetent as to call into question his ability to continue in this area of practice, or whether he has conducted himself in such a manner as to perpetrate a fraud upon the court, is not for us to say. But we view any of these possibilities with alarm. The trial court was similarly concerned, asking trial counsel, “Don’t you think you have some responsibility to the system?”
Typically, trial counsel in such situations testify primarily to the factual details of their conduct and decisions, and admit errors only with reluctance and with due regard for their professionalism and pride in their work. The developing trend of emphatically and even eagerly testifying to one’s own incompetence or misconduct is dangerous to the administration of justice, particularly if it is allowed to continue without any consequences for the testifying trial counsel.