Court Opinion

ID: 9927412
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-27 00:01:38.634901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:30.636841
License: Public Domain

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            IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF ALASKA

ANDREW ALLEN AMAROK,
                                                       Court of Appeals No. A-13846
                            Appellant,                Trial Court No. 3AN-14-10523 CI

                     v.
                                                                 OPINION
STATE OF ALASKA,

                            Appellee.                   No. 2770 — January 26, 2024

              Appeal from the Superior Court, Third Judicial District,
              Anchorage, Erin B. Marston, Judge.

              Appearances: Barbara Dunham, Attorney at Law, under
              contract with the Public Defender Agency, and Samantha
              Cherot, Public Defender, Anchorage, for the Appellant. Eric A.
              Ringsmuth, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Criminal
              Appeals, Anchorage, and Treg R. Taylor, Attorney General,
              Juneau, for the Appellee.

              Before: Allard, Chief Judge, and Harbison and Terrell, Judges.

              Judge ALLARD.

              A jury convicted Andrew Allen Amarok of first-degree murder for killing
his stepfather, Dennis Kane.1 After this Court affirmed Amarok’s conviction on direct

   1
       AS 11.41.100(a)(1)(A).
appeal,2 Amarok filed an application for post-conviction relief alleging that his trial
attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel. The superior court dismissed
the application for failure to state a prima facie case. On appeal, Amarok does not argue
that his application stated a prima facie case. Instead, he argues that his post-conviction
relief attorney’s representation was so deficient that he is entitled to a remand under our
decisions in Tazruk and Demoski.3
              The State disputes that a remand is the appropriate remedy under the facts
of this case, and the State argues that Amarok should be required to file a second post-
conviction relief application under Grinols if Amarok wants to argue that he received
ineffective assistance of counsel from his post-conviction relief attorney.4 The State
also argues that we should overrule Tazruk and Demoski as erroneous and unworkable.
              For the reasons explained here, we continue to adhere to Tazruk and
Demoski in cases where the post-conviction relief attorney’s representation is so facially
deficient as to raise serious concerns about the post-conviction relief attorney’s basic
competence and diligence. We agree, however, with the State that the current case does
not fall within this narrow category of cases because the record shows that the post-
conviction relief attorney actively litigated Amarok’s post-conviction relief claims and
provided the necessary supporting affidavits for those claims.
              We therefore affirm the dismissal of Amarok’s application for post-
conviction relief for failure to state a prima facie case. To the extent that Amarok
believes his post-conviction relief attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel,
he may pursue such a claim through a Grinols application.

   2
      Amarok v. State, 2014 WL 1779309, at *1, *5 (Alaska App. Apr. 30, 2014)
(unpublished).
   3
      See Demoski v. State, 449 P.3d 348 (Alaska App. 2019); Tazruk v. State, 67 P.3d
687 (Alaska App. 2003).
   4
       See Grinols v. State, 74 P.3d 889, 894-95 (Alaska 2003).

                                           –2–                                        2770
       The constitutional principles that underlie our decisions in Tazruk and
       Demoski
              As this Court recognized in Griffin v. State, “Courts have the
constitutional responsibility to make sure that an indigent defendant’s application for
post-conviction [relief] is ‘resolved in a way that is related to the merit’ of the petition
— not dismissed simply because the defendant’s attorney is unwilling to devote the
necessary effort to the case.”5
              When an attorney is appointed to represent an indigent defendant in a post-
conviction relief case, the attorney has three options: (1) the attorney may proceed on
the claims alleged in the original pro se application; (2) the attorney may file an
amended application; or (3) the attorney may file a certificate of no merit. 6
              If the attorney files a certificate of no merit, the attorney “must provide
the court with a full explanation of all the claims the attorney has considered and why
the attorney has concluded that these claims are frivolous.”7 This full explanation is
required so that the trial court can perform its own independent assessment of the
potential merit of the defendant’s post-conviction relief case.8 As we explained in
Griffin:
              The independent judicial assessment required by
              Rule 35.1(f)(2) is crucial to the protection of indigent
              petitioners’ right to counsel. For, as the United States
              Supreme Court explained in Robbins, the right to counsel
              includes “the right to have an attorney, zealous for the
              indigent’s interests, evaluate [the] case and attempt to
              discern [any] nonfrivolous arguments.” Protection of this

   5
      Griffin v. State, 18 P.3d 71, 75-76 (Alaska App. 2001); see also Smith v. Robbins,
528 U.S. 259, 278 n.10 (2000).
   6
       See Alaska R. Crim. P. 35.1(e)(2).
   7
       Griffin, 18 P.3d at 77.
   8
       Id.

                                            –3–                                        2770
               right to a zealous advocate is especially important because,
               under Alaska law, a defendant is normally entitled to only
               one petition for post-conviction relief.[9]
               The trial court’s duty to protect an indigent defendant’s right to a zealous
advocate is not limited to situations in which the post-conviction relief attorney files a
certificate of no merit. The same duty also applies when a post-conviction relief
attorney relies on a facially deficient pro se application or when a post-conviction relief
attorney files a facially deficient amended application.10
               Thus, in Tazruk v. State, we remanded a post-conviction relief case to the
superior court for further proceedings because the post-conviction relief attorney
elected to rely on a facially deficient pro se application and the “record contain[ed] no
indication that Tazruk’s attorney ever investigated these claims, sought to adduce
support for them through discovery, or sought to reformulate them so that they might
survive a motion to dismiss.”11 We concluded that this record — which showed only
the attorney’s “inaction and ultimate concession of defeat” — was “insufficient to allow
the courts to carry out their constitutional duty to make sure that an indigent petitioner
receives zealous and competent representation.”12

   9
        Id. (alterations in original) (citing Robbins, 528 U.S. at 278 n.10).
   10
       Tazruk v. State, 67 P.3d 687, 692 (Alaska App. 2003), Demoski v. State, 449 P.3d
348, 350-51 (Alaska App. 2019).
   11
        Tazruk, 67 P.3d at 691 (emphasis omitted).
   12
       Id. In a separate concurrence, Judge Coats noted that filing a certificate of no merit
“requires a substantial effort on the part of an attorney who determines that his client’s
claims are frivolous[,]” and he speculated that Tazruk’s attorney was trying to evade this
burden by proceeding on a “patently frivolous” pro se application. Judge Coats then
emphasized that to allow such evasion would be to neglect “our independent duty to protect
Tazruk’s right to the effective assistance of counsel in pursuing his application for post-
conviction relief[.]” Id. at 693-94 (Coats, C.J., concurring).

                                             –4–                                        2770
               We reached a similar conclusion in Demoski v. State, a case in which the
appointed attorney abandoned numerous pro se claims for post-conviction relief in
favor of an amended application that raised only one procedurally barred claim for
relief.13 Like the attorney in Tazruk, the attorney in Demoski made little effort to defend
the facially deficient application — and when the State moved to dismiss the case based
on an obvious procedural bar, the post-conviction relief attorney filed a non-responsive
pleading that did not provide any substantive argument for why the claim was not
procedurally barred.14 We concluded that the record supported only one of two
conclusions: either (1) the attorney was incompetent for failing to recognize that the
procedurally barred claim was patently frivolous; or (2) the attorney was aware that the
barred claim was patently frivolous and was trying to avoid the work that filing a
certificate of no merit would require.15 In either case, however, the trial court’s duty to
protect the defendant’s constitutional right to a competent and zealous advocate was
implicated, and further proceedings were required to ensure that the right was
adequately protected.16
               As we explained in Demoski, our focus in the post-Tazruk cases has been
on (1) whether the application before the court was “plainly deficient on its face”;
(2) whether the attorney “sought to defend” the application; and (3) whether the record
revealed that the attorney had “investigated or analyzed the petitioner’s claims or

   13
        Demoski, 449 P.3d at 349.
   14
        Id.; see Tazruk, 67 P.3d at 690.
   15
        Demoski, 449 P.3d at 351.
   16
       Id.; see also McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 (1970) (recognizing trial
judge’s duty to “maintain proper standards of performance by attorneys who are
representing defendants in criminal cases in their courts”); see generally William W.
Schwarzer, Dealing with Incompetent Counsel – The Trial Judge’s Role, 93 Harv.
L. Rev. 633, 649 (1980).

                                           –5–                                        2770
potential claims.”17 Thus, in cases where the application appears to be facially deficient
and the attorney fails to offer “any substantive explanation for why the application is
not facially deficient,” we have encouraged trial courts to hold a hearing to determine
whether the appointed attorney “will elect to cure the defect, or instead file a certificate
of no merit.”18
               In a footnote in Demoski, we also provided some guidance on what types
of applications qualify as “facially deficient” or “plainly deficient on its face.” As we
explained:
               A petition that is “plainly deficient on its face” generally will
               fall into one or more of the following narrow categories:
               1) the claims clearly are procedurally barred; 2) the claims
               clearly are factually inaccurate (as in Tazruk); 3) the claims
               are unsupported by any evidence or argument; or 4) the
               petition alleges ineffective assistance of counsel, but does
               not contain either the required affidavit from trial counsel or
               an explanation as to why the affidavit could not be
               obtained.[19]
As the above quote indicates, our expectation was that only a narrow subset of cases
would qualify as “plainly deficient on its face.”

   17
        Demoski, 449 P.3d at 350; see, e.g., Vann v. State, 2016 WL 936765, at *1-2 (Alaska
App. Mar. 9, 2016) (unpublished) (remanding case where application was facially deficient
and lacked an affidavit from the trial attorney and where the post-conviction relief attorney
filed a one paragraph conclusory opposition to the State’s motion to dismiss); Beshaw v.
State, 2012 WL 1368146, at *6 (Alaska App. Apr. 18, 2012) (unpublished) (remanding
case where application did not include any supporting evidence or citations to the record,
and the attorney’s minimal opposition to the State’s motion to dismiss was the “equivalent
of filing a ‘no merit’ certificate without providing the explanations required by Griffin and
Criminal Rule 35.1(e)(2)”); Duncan v. State, 2008 WL 5025424, at *3 (Alaska App.
Nov. 26, 2008) (unpublished) (remanding case where attorney relied on the defendant’s
clearly deficient pro se application and attorney did nothing to explain what investigation
they had conducted or what claims they had considered and rejected).
   18
        See Demoski, 449 P.3d at 351.
   19
        Id. at 351 n.18.

                                             –6–                                        2770
      Why we conclude that Amarok’s post-conviction relief application was not
      plainly deficient on its face
             On appeal, Amarok argues that the trial court erred in dismissing his post-
conviction relief application for failure to state a prima facie case. He claims that the
application was plainly deficient on its face and the trial court should have done more
to ensure that the post-conviction relief attorney provided competent and zealous
representation.
             But a review of the post-conviction relief attorney’s actions in this case
demonstrates that the attorney actively investigated and litigated multiple claims for
post-conviction relief. While there may have been errors in the representation, none of
the errors would be so obvious as to qualify as plainly deficient representation under
Tazruk and Demoski.
             Significantly, a review of the record reveals that Amarok’s first appointed
attorney was plainly deficient. After Amarok filed his pro se application, Amarok was
assigned a contract attorney with the Office of Public Advocacy. For more than a year,
that attorney did nothing other than file requests for extensions of time. When the
attorney missed the final deadline to file an amended application, the superior court
dismissed Amarok’s post-conviction relief case.
             This dismissal was plainly erroneous because it should have been clear to
the superior court that Amarok had not received constitutionally adequate
representation. An attorney with the Office of Public Advocacy later filed a motion to
reopen the post-conviction relief case under Alaska Civil Rule 60(b)(6), which the
superior court granted.
             After the case was reopened, a different contract attorney was assigned to
represent Amarok. This attorney also filed numerous extension requests. However,
unlike the requests filed by the first attorney, these requests were accompanied by
affidavits that informed the superior court of the attorney’s ongoing efforts to review
and investigate the case. The affidavits indicated that the case was “incredibly

                                          –7–                                       2770
complex,” and that the record included “15,000 pages of documents along with
multimedia.” The affidavits also stated that the attorney and her staff were “diligently
working” on the case, that “significant work” had been done, and that she was
“coordinating” with a DNA expert.
              The following month, the assigned attorney filed an amended application
for post-conviction relief raising numerous claims of ineffective assistance of counsel
against Amarok’s trial attorney. The amended application was eighteen pages long and
included citations to the trial court record and the trial transcripts. However, it did not
include affidavits from Amarok or from his trial attorney.
              The State moved to dismiss the application for failure to state a prima
facie case, noting these deficiencies.
              In response, the attorney filed a fourteen-page opposition and the attorney
filed two motions to supplement the record. The first motion to supplement included
affidavits from Amarok, from his trial attorney, and from a forensic scientist
specializing in DNA analysis. The affidavit from Amarok was four pages long and
provided support for various factual assertions in the amended application. The affidavit
from trial counsel was three pages long and included the trial counsel’s responses to
Amarok’s ineffective assistance of counsel allegations. The affidavit from the forensic
scientist was five pages long and included the testimony that the scientist would have
given if called as a DNA expert in Amarok’s case.
              The second motion to supplement the record included a memorandum
from an experienced criminal defense attorney who opined that Amarok’s trial attorney
had provided ineffective assistance of counsel when she failed to file a sentencing
memorandum in Amarok’s case.
              Ultimately, the superior court dismissed the amended application for
failure to state a prima facie case for relief, but it did so only after accepting the first
supplementation to the record and only after reviewing Amarok’s lengthy opposition
and the State’s response.

                                           –8–                                         2770
                  Following the dismissal, Amarok’s attorney filed a fourteen-page motion
for reconsideration in which she reiterated the reasons why she believed the pleadings
established a prima facie case for relief on a number of the post-conviction claims,
including the DNA expert claim and the ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing
claim. The superior court denied the motion for reconsideration, and this appeal
followed.
                  Amarok is represented by a different attorney on appeal. His appellate
attorney does not argue that Amarok’s pleadings stated a prima facie case for relief on
any of its claims. Instead, the appellate attorney attacks the pleadings as plainly
deficient under Tazruk and Demoski. According to the appellate attorney, the superior
court erred in dismissing the amended application and the court should have done more
to ensure that Amarok received constitutionally adequate representation.
                  We disagree that the petition before the court was plainly deficient on its
face.20 Although the appellate attorney points to certain factual misrepresentations in
the post-conviction relief attorney’s pleadings, the errors that the appellate attorney
notes are not immediately obvious without a thorough full review of the case. In other
words, the alleged errors do not constitute the type of facial deficiencies that this Court
identified and described in Demoski.21 That is, the claims are neither procedurally
barred nor unsupported by any evidence or argument.22 Additionally, the attorney did
not fail to provide affidavits required to support Amarok’s claims.23

   20
       See id. at 350 (“Our focus has been on whether the petition before the court was
plainly deficient on its face[.]”).
   21
        See id. at 351 n.18.
   22
        See id.
   23
        See id.

                                              –9–                                       2770
              This is not to say that the appellate attorney’s criticisms of the post-
conviction relief attorney’s performance are invalid. Indeed, it is possible that Amarok
may have a viable Grinols claim for ineffective assistance of counsel if he can establish
both incompetent performance and prejudice under Risher.24 But a Tazruk/Demoski
remand is limited to those situations where the representation is so facially inadequate
as to obviate the need to show prejudice.25 Because the record here does not demonstrate
that level of constitutionally inadequate representation, it was not error for the superior
court to dismiss the application for failure to state a prima facie case without taking any
further action under Tazruk or Demoski.

        Why we reject the State’s argument that Tazruk and Demoski should be
        overruled
              The State argues that we should reconsider our decisions in Tazruk and
Demoski and that we should overturn the line of cases deriving from these decisions.
However, under the well-settled rule of stare decisis, we must adhere to our precedents
unless we are “clearly convinced” that (1) a decision was “originally erroneous or is no
longer sound[,]” and (2) that “more good than harm” would result from overruling it.26
              The State’s primary argument for overruling Tazruk and Demoski is its
claim that the decisions are inconsistent with the two-prong test for ineffective
assistance of counsel under Risher v. State.27 But as Amarok points out in his reply
brief, Tazruk and Demoski complement and support the two-prong test under Risher.

   24
        See Risher v. State, 523 P.2d 421, 425 (Alaska 1974).
   25
       Demoski, 449 P.3d at 351 n.18; see United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 654
n.11 (1984).
   26
      See Wassillie v. State, 411 P.3d 595, 611 (Alaska 2018) (citing Thomas v.
Anchorage Equal Rts. Comm’n, 102 P.3d 937, 943 (Alaska 2004)).
   27
        Risher, 523 P.2d at 425.

                                          – 10 –                                      2770
               In Risher v. State, the Alaska Supreme Court created a two-prong test for
evaluating a state constitutional claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.28 Under the
first prong — the performance prong — the defendant must establish that their trial
attorney failed to “perform at least as well as a lawyer with ordinary training and skill
in the criminal law[.]”29 The test is one of minimal competence; the defendant must
show “a level of performance that no reasonably competent attorney would provide.”30
               Under the second prong — the prejudice prong — the defendant must
establish a “reasonable doubt” that their attorney’s ineffective performance
“contributed to the outcome.”31 In other words, the defendant “must create a reasonable
doubt as to whether counsel’s lack of competency contributed to the conviction.”32
               The State argues that Tazruk and Demoski are inconsistent with the Risher
test because, according to the State, they provide appellate relief based only on a
showing of incompetent performance, without requiring any showing of prejudice.

   28
        Id. at 424-25.
   29
        Id.
   30
        State v. Jones, 759 P.2d 558, 568 (Alaska App. 1988).
   31
       Risher, 523 P.2d at 425; see also Jones, 759 P.2d at 572; Tucker v. State, 892 P.2d
832, 834 (Alaska App. 1995). Notably, this is a lower standard than the standard used under
Strickland v. Washington to evaluate a federal constitutional claim of ineffective assistance
of counsel. Strickland also uses a two-prong test, and its first prong (the performance
prong) is essentially identical to the first prong under Risher. See Strickland v. Washington,
466 U.S. 668, 687-88 (1984). But its second prong (the prejudice prong) requires the
defendant to establish a “reasonable probability” that, but for the attorney’s incompetent
performance, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different. Id. at 694. In
contrast, under Risher, the defendant need only create a “reasonable doubt that the
incompetence contributed to the outcome.” See Risher, 523 P.2d at 425; see also Jones,
759 P.2d at 572 (explaining the differences between Strickland and Risher as to prejudice).
   32
        Tucker, 892 P.2d at 834.

                                           – 11 –                                        2770
              But in United States v. Cronic, the United States Supreme Court
recognized that there can be instances where a defense attorney’s performance is so
deficient as to trigger a presumption of prejudice.33 Such instances are rare and include
circumstances where the attorney’s representation is so appallingly poor as to
effectively not count as representation at all.34 As the Court explained in Cronic,
“Assistance begins with the appointment of counsel, [but] it does not end there. In some
cases the performance of counsel may be so inadequate that, in effect, no assistance of
counsel is provided.”35 Thus, for example, if a trial attorney “entirely fails to subject the
prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing, then there has been a denial of

   33
        United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 654 (1984) (“If no actual ‘Assistance’ ‘for’
the accused’s ‘defence’ is provided, then the constitutional guarantee has been violated.”);
see also United States v. Ragin, 820 F.3d 609, 618 (4th Cir. 2016) (recognizing under
Cronic that “counsel’s incompetence can be so serious that it rises to the level of a
constructive denial of counsel which can constitute constitutional error without any
showing of prejudice” (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 703 n.2 (Brennan, J., concurring in
part and dissenting in part))); United States v. Griffin, 324 F.3d 330, 364 (5th Cir. 2003)
(“A constructive denial of counsel occurs in only a very narrow spectrum of cases where
the circumstances leading to counsel’s ineffectiveness are so egregious that the defendant
was in effect denied any meaningful assistance at all.” (quoting Gochicoa v. Johnson, 238
F.3d 278, 284 (5th Cir. 2000))).
   34
         Cronic, 466 U.S. at 658-59. In Cronic, the United States Supreme Court recognized
three distinct situations in which a presumption of prejudice is appropriate. First, prejudice
is presumed when the defendant is completely denied counsel “at a critical stage of his
trial.” Id. at 659. Second, prejudice is presumed if there has been a constructive denial of
counsel. Id. This happens when a lawyer “fails to subject the prosecution’s case to
meaningful adversarial testing,” thus making “the adversary process itself presumptively
unreliable.” Id. Third, the Court identified certain instances when “although counsel is
available to assist the accused during trial, the likelihood that any lawyer, even a fully
competent one, could provide effective assistance is so small that a presumption of
prejudice is appropriate without inquiry into the actual conduct of the trial.” Id. at 659-60
(citing, as an example, Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932)).
   35
       Id. at 654 n.11 (quoting United States v. Decoster, 624 F.2d 196, 219 (D.C.
Cir. 1976) (MacKinnon, J., concurring)).

                                           – 12 –                                        2770
Sixth Amendment rights that makes the adversary process itself presumptively
unreliable.”36
                 Tazruk and Demoski recognize that there can likewise be instances where
a post-conviction relief attorney’s performance is so deficient as to not even qualify as
assistance at all. However, unlike in Cronic, where the remedy is a new trial, the remedy
under Tazruk and Demoski is purely procedural — the defendant does not obtain post-
conviction relief on their claims; instead, they receive a remand so that those claims can
be properly litigated in the first instance.37
                 Tazruk and Demoski therefore recognize that a defendant who has
received only patently incompetent representation in a post-conviction relief
proceeding has not actually received the benefits of representation to which they are
entitled. In those circumstances, it is incumbent on the trial courts to take action to
safeguard the defendant’s right to effective assistance of post-conviction relief counsel
by requiring the attorney to cure any obvious defects in the application (or by replacing
the attorney if they prove incapable of providing the bare minimum required for
competent representation in the post-conviction relief context).38 Likewise, it is

   36
        Id. at 659; see also Ragin, 820 F.3d at 619-20 (finding presumptive prejudice where
counsel was asleep during a substantial portion of trial); United States v. Collins, 430 F.3d
1260, 1266 (10th Cir. 2005) (finding presumptive prejudice where trial counsel “stood
silent . . . and did not subject the prosecution’s case to adversarial testing”).
   37
       Cronic, 466 U.S. at 659; Demoski v. State, 449 P.3d 348, 351 (Alaska App. 2019);
cf. Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 88 (1988) (holding that actual or constructive denial of
counsel on appeal triggers presumption of prejudice and requires remand).
   38
       See McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 (1970) (“[I]f the right to counsel
guaranteed by the Constitution is to serve its purpose, defendants cannot be left to the
mercies of incompetent counsel, and . . . judges should strive to maintain proper standards
of performance by attorneys who are representing defendants in criminal cases in their
courts.”).

                                            – 13 –                                      2770
incumbent on the appellate courts to remand a case for further proceedings if the record
demonstrates that the defendant has yet to receive facially competent representation.39
              The State argues that Tazruk and Demoski remands are overly burdensome
and create unnecessary delay in the system. But in a functioning criminal justice system
where post-conviction relief attorneys are adequately trained and resourced, such
remands should be rare. As the current case demonstrates, Tazruk and Demoski do not
apply to cases where the record shows that the attorney actively investigated and
litigated the case and where the application is not plainly deficient on its face. This is
because Tazruk and Demoski do not guarantee error-free representation; instead, they
are focused only on the most obvious examples of attorney incompetence and lack of
diligence. Moreover, the remedy they provide — a remand for further proceedings —
is a modest one that is designed only to restore the defendant’s ability to receive the
competent and diligent representation they have yet to receive.
              The State also argues that Tazruk and Demoski remands are unnecessary
because a defendant who has been deprived of the effective assistance of counsel in his
post-conviction relief proceeding can always file a second application under Grinols v.
State.40 In Grinols, the Alaska Supreme Court held that the statutory bar against
successive post-conviction relief applications does not apply when a defendant files a
second post-conviction relief application alleging that their first post-conviction relief
attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel.41 To succeed on a Grinols
application, a defendant must show not only that their first post-conviction attorney
performed incompetently, but also that they were actually prejudiced by that

   39
       See Demoski, 449 P.3d at 351; Tazruk v. State, 67 P.3d 687, 691-92 (Alaska App.
2003); Griffin v. State, 18 P.3d 71, 77 (Alaska App. 2001).
   40
        See Grinols v. State, 74 P.3d 889, 895 (Alaska 2003).
   41
        Id.

                                          – 14 –                                     2770
incompetence — that is, they must show that they have a meritorious claim for post-
conviction relief that would have resulted in relief if it had been litigated competently.42
                 We agree with the State that Grinols provides a mechanism for a
defendant to obtain post-conviction relief in cases where they can show that they have
been prejudiced by their post-conviction relief attorney’s incompetence. But we
disagree that this mechanism renders the remand remedy provided by Tazruk and
Demoski unnecessary. As already explained, Tazruk and Demoski remands are reserved
for situations in which the attorney’s failure to comply with the basic requirements of
post-conviction relief litigation is so plainly obvious that the presumption of attorney
competency cannot be maintained.43 A remand is appropriate in those situations
because, practically speaking, the defendant has yet to receive the representation to
which they are entitled. Requiring the defendant to shoulder the administrative and
financial burden of filing a Grinols application under those circumstances is unfair,
particularly because there is no constitutional right to counsel for a Grinols
application.44
                 In sum, for all the reasons discussed above, we conclude that Tazruk and
Demoski remain good law and help safeguard a defendant’s right to competent counsel
in the post-conviction relief context. We therefore decline the State’s request to overrule
our prior precedent.

        Conclusion
                 The judgment of the superior court is AFFIRMED.

   42
        Grinols v. State, 10 P.3d 600, 618 (Alaska App. 2000).
   43
        Demoski, 449 P.3d at 351 & n.18.
   44
       Grinols, 10 P.3d at 604; Grinols, 74 P.3d at 891, 895-96 (holding that a defendant
has the right to bring a second Grinols application challenging the effectiveness of counsel,
but not finding that there is a right to counsel at public expense).

                                           – 15 –                                       2770