Carter v. State, 97-CT-01468-SCT.

• Decision Date: 09 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-CT-01468-SCT.,97-CT-01468-SCT.
• Citation: 775 So.2d 91
• Parties: Adrian CARTER a/k/a Adrian Z. Carter v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

775 So.2d 91

Adrian CARTER a/k/a Adrian Z. Carter v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 97-CT-01468-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 9, 1999.

Rehearing Denied January 25, 2001.

Jim Waide, Tupelo, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Scott Stuart, Attorneys for Appellee.

EN BANC.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI

SMITH, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. This case comes to this Court on writ of certiorari from the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the circuit court's denial of Adrian Carter's post-conviction relief (PCR) petition which sought to vacate his conviction and sentence for the crime of seduction. Carter, a teacher, was initially indicted for the sexual battery of a minor student under his trust or authority. However, as a result of a plea bargain agreement, Carter pled guilty to a charge of seduction by bill of information and received a sentence of six years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

¶ 2. Subsequently, Carter filed a petition for post-conviction relief alleging, inter alia, that there was no factual basis for his guilty plea and that he had not received effective assistance of counsel. The Circuit Court of Clay County denied the petition, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Carter's petition for writ of certiorari was granted by this Court.

¶ 3. After thorough examination and analysis of the issues at bar, we find no merit to Carter's contentions. We therefore affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

¶ 4. Adrian Carter was employed by Oak Hill Academy in West Point, Mississippi as band director and baseball coach. During the spring of 1996, a romantic relationship developed between Carter and a former band student, who was then fifteen years old. Eventually, Carter and the minor had sexual intercourse.

¶ 5. Carter was indicted for sexual battery under Miss.Code Ann § 97-3-95(2)(1994) which criminalizes the sexual penetration of a child between fourteen and eighteen years of age by a person in a position of trust or authority over the child including, among other authority figures, the child's teacher. The sexual battery offense carried a maximum sentence of thirty years. Carter has never denied that he had sexual relations with the minor. He claims that he was not guilty of sexual battery because the child was not his student when the sexual relationship began. Although Carter was a teacher at the school where the child was a student, he claims that he was no longer her band teacher when the two began the sexual relationship.

¶ 6. As a result of plea bargaining between Carter and the district attorney, the indictment was dismissed, and by bill of information, Carter waived indictment and pled guilty to the crime of seduction of a minor under Miss.Code Ann. § 97-5-21 (1994)(repealed in 1998). These two events occurred simultaneously on the same day. Carter was sentenced to a term of six years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

¶ 7. Carter subsequently filed a petition for post-conviction relief in which he alleged that there was no factual basis for his guilty plea and that he had not received effective assistance of counsel. The petition was denied by the circuit judge, and the Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. This Court granted Carter's petition for writ of certiorari. We agree with the Court of Appeals. Examination of the record establishes that there are sufficient facts to support Carter's plea of guilty to seduction and that Carter's trial counsel was not ineffective.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

¶ 8. On Carter's writ of certiorari we examine Carter's Petition for Post-Conviction Relief to determine, whether Carter received ineffective assistance of counsel and, whether there is a factual basis for Carter's guilty plea to seduction.

I.

¶ 9. First, we consider Carter's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Carter was originally indicted for sexual battery, but as a result of plea negotiations, that charge was dismissed, and, by bill of information, Carter was re-charged with the crime of seduction. Carter entered a waiver to the bill of information and pled guilty. Carter thus avoided the possible 30-year sentence had he proceeded and been convicted of sexual battery, but instead received a 6-year sentence for seduction per the recommendation of the district attorney.

¶ 10. Carter claims his attorney was ineffective and failed to investigate his case. In examining whether an attorney provided ineffective assistance to a defendant, we must consider the two-pronged test established in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). This standard for determining whether a defendant received the effective assistance of counsel was provided by this Court in Foster v. State, 687 So.2d 1124, 1129-30 (Miss.1996). There the Court stated:

"The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness [of counsel] must be whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result." Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). "The test is two pronged: The defendant must demonstrate that his counsel's performance was deficient, and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense of the case." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. At 2064; Washington v. State, 620 So.2d 966 (Miss.1993). "This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable. Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable." Stringer v. State, 454 So.2d 468, 477 (Miss.1984),citing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. At 2064. "In any case presenting an ineffectiveness claim, the performance inquiry must be whether counsel's assistance was reasonable considering all the circumstances." Stringer at 477, citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688,104 S.Ct. At 2065; State v. Tokman, 564 So.2d 1339, 1343 (Miss.1990).

Judicial scrutiny of counsel's performance must be highly deferential. (Citation omitted) ... A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time. Because of the difficulties inherent in making the evaluation, a court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action "might be considered sound trial strategy." Stringer at 477; Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. At 2065. In short, defense counsel is presumed competent. Johnson v. State, 476 So.2d 1195, 1204 (Miss.1985); Washington v. State, 620 So.2d 966 (Miss.1993). Then, to determine the second prong of prejudice to the defense, the standard is `a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.' Mohr v. State, 584 So.2d 426, 430 (Miss. 1991). This means a `probability sufficient to undermine the confidence in the outcome.' Id. ... There is no constitutional right then to errorless counsel. Cabello v. State, 524 So.2d 313, 315 (Miss.1988); Mohr v. State, 584 So.2d 426, 430 (Miss.1991) (right to effective counsel does not entitle defendant to have an attorney who makes no mistakes at trial; defendant just has right to have competent counsel). If the post-conviction application fails on either of the Strickland prongs, the proceedings end. Neal v. State, 525 So.2d 1279, 1281 (Miss.1987); Mohr v. State, 584 So.2d 426, (Miss.1991).

Foster, 687 So.2d at 1129-30.

¶ 11. A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel will succeed only where this Court, upon examining the totality of the circumstances, finds that there has been both "deficient performance and resulting prejudice from those deficiencies." Payton v. State, 708 So.2d 559, 563 (Miss.1998). Carter satisfies neither prong.

¶ 12. Carter fails to show that the performance of his trial counsel was deficient. We note that the Court of Appeals quoted from Strickland v. Washington, a case which involved a challenge to a counsel's investigation, as does the case at hand. The Court of Appeals cited with approval Strickland's discussion of counsel's duty to investigate:

strategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable; and strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation. In other words, counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary. In any ineffectiveness case, a particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel's judgments.

Carter v. State, No. 970CA-01468-COA, slip. op. at 6 (Miss.Ct.App. Dec. 30, 1998) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91, 104 S.Ct. at 2066). Thus, in determining the reasonableness of not making a more extensive investigation of other late-developing factors, counsel's actions or inactions may be "substantially influenced by the defendant's own statements or actions.... In particular, what investigation decisions are reasonable depends critically on such information. For example, ....when a defendant has given counsel reason to believe that pursuing certain investigations would be fruitless or even harmful, counsel's failure to pursue...