Court Opinion

ID: 9582541
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:28:31.408869+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:56.353713
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Justice:
(Concurring).
I reluctantly concur in Justice Durham’s opinion. This case does not meet any of the criteria set by our case law for taking the extraordinary step of considering the merits of Gerrish’s claims, even those claims that no courts have considered on their merits.
As a result of a confluence of circumstances, the proceedings before this court on certiorari have turned out to be a waste of this court’s time and effort, as well as that of counsel for the State and the unpaid appointed counsel we furnished Gerrish after granting certiorari. We granted the writ, I assume, because Gerrish’s pro se petition for certiorari claimed that his counsel at the plea bargaining stage was unfamiliar with criminal law practice and had an undisclosed conflict with Gerrish, all of which rendered his assistance ineffective. Gerrish alleged that his attorney confused his ecclesiastical duties to the victims, their parents, and Gerrish with the duties he owed Gerrish in his role as counsel. The proof of his counsel’s ineffectiveness, Gerrish concluded, was that his counsel had been disciplined by the Bar for his conduct. Gerrish claimed that the courts below had refused to consider the elaim on the merits.
The State did not respond to the certiora-ri petition. Only after plaintiff’s appointed counsel had briefed the merits of these questions and others did the State, in its responsive brief, note that while evidence on this issue was addressed at the hearing on Gerrish’s motion to withdraw his plea, his then counsel did not press the legal issue either before the district court or on appeal. Therefore, the State argued, the issue was not properly before us. The only way we could reach those claims would be to determine preliminarily that all prior counsel were ineffective in not pursuing them earlier. However, the ineffectiveness issue was not raised in the pro se habeas petition filed with the district court, nor was it argued to the district court or the court of appeals. Although plaintiff now has appointed counsel who has briefed the issue, it is beyond our reach. We agree with the State and refuse to consider the issues raised for the first time in the certio-rari petition.
All in all, the present case is a fine example of how claims of arguable merit can fall between the cracks created by the combination of insufficiently flexible procedures and insufficiently counseled litigants that is endemic to habeas corpus proceedings. In the long run, both the courts and the parties would save time and money and be better served if we provided criminal defendants with counsel, with one thorough plenary examination and hearing of all post-conviction questions, and with a counseled appeal from that determination. Instead, we squander vast time and re*322sources trying to avoid reaching the merits of successive habeas petitions in which un-counseled defendants haltingly attempt to raise what they think are valid claims. The present system serves only to baffle and anger the public with its costs and delay, while occasionally denying justice.
Unfortunately, the proceedings leading to today’s decision, proceedings that I suspect are not yet over, bring to mind more Bleak House than Gideon’s Trumpet.