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Dasher: A piece of foolish advice

By Tim Cone

In Dasher v. Witt, No. 08-10363 (11th Cir. July 13, 2009), the Court granted habeas relief based on ineffective assistance of counselDasher decided to reject a plea offer to be sentenced to 13 months, and opted to plead guilty to cocaine trafficking charges "straight up," that is, without any agreement, based on his attorney?s advice that he doubted the sentence would exceed 13 months, and might be less. Once the judge learned of Dasher?s criminal history, he imposed a 10-year sentence.The Court held that counsel was not ineffective in failing to investigate Dasher?s criminal history. The record supported an implicit finding that counsel asked Dasher about his prior criminal record. Moreover, failure to undertake an independent investigation was not constitutionally ineffective when counsel relied on information apparently in the hands of the prosecutor...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on July 13, 2009 (boomark / email).