Court Opinion

ID: 9505549
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:06:21.577115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:36.603967
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Justice,
concurring in result.
This case deals with the proper measure of prejudice when a defendant attempts to set aside a guilty plea on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. It requires us to parse the only United States Supreme Court case on this subject, Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985). As the majority’s opinion points out, Hill is frequently quoted for its pronouncement that, “in order to satisfy the ‘prejudice’ requirement [of the test for ineffective assistance of counsel], the [petitioner] must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.” Id. at 59, 106 S.Ct. 366.
As the majority also points out, Hill goes on to say that in the case of many commonly alleged errors of counsel, “the resolution of the ‘prejudice’ inquiry will depend largely on whether the affirmative defense likely would have succeeded trial.” Id. I agree with the majority that this statement in Hill — along with the analysis that supports it — means that a defendant who pled guilty after erroneous advice by counsel that, if corrected, would raise an affirmative defense must show a reasonable probability of a more favorable result at trial in order to show prejudice and obtain relief.
I also agree with the majority that this prejudice test applies not just to counsel’s shortcomings affecting a defense but also to errors or omissions that have the result of overlooking evidence or circumstances that affect the sentence imposed. In those situations, too, I agree that prejudice from the decision to plead is measured by evaluating the probability of success of the omitted defense or evidence.
I part company from the majority when it adopts a different, more lenient, standard for prejudice with respect to claims arising from counsel’s legal advice with respect to penal consequences. For these claims, the majority would not require a showing that, if the defendant had gone to trial, there would have been a reasonable probability of a more favorable result. It is enough, in such circumstances, the majority says, for the defendant to show merely that a “hypothetical reasonable defendant” would not have plead guilty and insisted on going to trial. I would require a showing of a reasonable probability of a more favorable result in these circumstances as well.
The majority finds the basis for differentiating claims as to penal consequences from other claims in Hill. My reading of Hill is different.
Hill involved a claim that counsel had not advised the defendant accurately as to *509the date he would be eligible for parole. The Court did not reach the merits of this claim because the petitioner had not alleged in his habeas petition that if he had been properly advised as to his parole eligibility, he would not have pled guilty and insisted on going to trial. Hill, 474 U.S at 60, 106 S.Ct. 366. Nor had he alleged any “special circumstances that might support the conclusion that he placed particular emphasis on his parole eligibility in deciding whether or not to plead guilty.” Id. Absent such a claim or special circumstances, the Court said, the “petitioner’s allegations [were] insufficient to satisfy the Strickland v. Washington requirement of ‘prejudice.’ ” Id.
The majority reads this analysis to mean that the “reasonable probability of a more favorable result” that the court used earlier in the Hill opinion does not apply to claims involving counsel’s errors or omissions concerning the penal consequences of the guilty plea. I think a better reading from the structure and language of Hill is that the “reasonable probability of a more favorable result” test applies to all claims but that it was not necessary to even reach the test in Hill because the threshold requirement of alleging that the petitioner would have pled not guilty and insisted on going to trial was not met.
That having been said, I think there is broad agreement between the majority and myself as to how a court approaches a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in respect of the guilty plea. First, the petitioner has the burden of demonstrating that counsel’s performance was deficient. (We leave that question open in this case.) Second, the petitioner has the burden of demonstrating a reasonable probability that the hypothetical reasonable defendant would not have pled guilty and elected to go to trial if properly advised. It is only after those two hurdles are cleared that the majority s and my disagreement is reached. I would require an additional showing by the petitioner of a reasonable probability of a more favorable result at trial in all such claims; the majority would not require such a showing in claims of errors or omissions in respect of penal consequences.
SHEPARD, C.J., concurs.