Alexander v. State, 23345
| Decision Date | 11 February 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 23345,23345 |
| Citation | 402 S.E.2d 484,303 S.C. 539 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | Vincent ALEXANDER, Petitioner, v. STATE of South Carolina, Respondent. |
Asst. Appellate Defender Robert M. Dudek, of S.C. Office of Appellate Defense, Columbia, for petitioner.
Atty. Gen. T. Travis Medlock, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Donald J. Zelenka, and Asst. Atty. Gen. Miller W. Shealy, Jr., Columbia, for respondent.
Petitioner Vincent Alexander pled guilty to trafficking in cocaine and received a fifteen year sentence from which he took no direct appeal. This case is before this Court on writ of certiorari from the denial, after a hearing, of his application for post-conviction relief (PCR). We reverse.
This case originated when law enforcement authorities received information from a confidential informant that crack cocaine was being brought into Estill, South Carolina by a number of individuals travelling in a particular automobile. Based upon their information, law enforcement authorities secured a search warrant and searched the vehicle in which petitioner and three codefendants had been travelling. Approximately fifty grams of crack cocaine were found. Also, while searching the vehicle, a key was found to a nearby motel room. One of the codefendants consented to a search of the room; approximately one hundred fifty grams of crack cocaine were discovered.
Four indictments, each containing two counts, were returned against petitioner. The vague indictments appeared to involve overlapping and greater and lesser charges. Despite the indictments, petitioner actually faced two counts of trafficking in cocaine, based on the possession of two different quantities. Consequently, petitioner's maximum sentencing exposure was seven to twenty-five years and a fifty-thousand dollar fine for the fifty grams of cocaine found in the automobile and a mandatory twenty-five year sentence and a fifty-thousand dollar fine for the one hundred fifty grams of cocaine found in the motel room. See, S.C.Code Ann. § 44-53-370(e)(2)(b) and (c) (1985). 1
Originally, petitioner pled not guilty, and a jury trial began on August 4, 1987. Later on that same date, petitioner, with the aid of his attorney and an interpreter, pled guilty to trafficking in more than ten grams of cocaine. Petitioner was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment from which he did not appeal. Petitioner then filed an application for PCR raising various allegations of ineffective assistance of trial counsel including that trial counsel was ineffective in providing him with erroneous sentencing advice. Petitioner claimed that but for this false sentencing information, he would not have pled guilty. The PCR judge denied petitioner's request for relief. We granted the petition for writ of certiorari on this issue.
In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the United States Supreme Court set forth a two-part standard for evaluating claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The first part of the test requires that a defendant show that his counsel's performance was deficient such that it falls below an objective standard of reasonableness. The second part of the test requires that a defendant show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. This second part of the Strickland test has also been referred to as the "prejudice" requirement. Although the United States Supreme Court decision inStrickland dealt with ineffective assistance of counsel in a capital sentencing proceeding, and was premised in part on the similarity between such a proceeding and the usual criminal trial, the same two-part standard was extended so as to apply to ineffective assistance claims arising out of the plea process in Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985).
In Hill, the United States Supreme Court held that in the context of determining the voluntariness of a guilty plea that is entered upon the advice of counsel, the first half of the Strickland test would require an inquiry into whether counsel's advice was within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases. Simply put, the first inquiry is whether trial counsel's advice was deficient. According to Hill, the "prejudice" requirement of the Strickland test focuses on whether counsel's ineffective performance affected the outcome of the plea process. In other words, in order to satisfy the "prejudice" requirement, the defendant must show...
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...884, 886 (2007) (citing Strickland v. Washington , 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) ; Alexander v. State , 303 S.C. 539, 541, 402 S.E.2d 484, 485 (1991) ). "Second, an applicant must show there is a reasonable probability, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the......
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...plea, i.e., the defendant must show that counsel's ineffective performance affected the outcome of the plea process. Alexander v. State, 303 S.C. 539, 402 S.E.2d 484 (1991). See also Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 ...
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...not have pled guilty and would have insisted on going to trial. Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 58-59 (1985); Alexander v. State, 303 S.C. 539, 542, 402 S.E.2d 484, 485 (1991).Courts use a two-pronged test in evaluating allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel. First, the Applicant m......
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