Hill v. State
| Decision Date | 09 May 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 1182S417,1182S417 |
| Parties | Eddie Leon HILL, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Christian J. Gielow, Merrillville, for appellant.
Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Amy Schaeffer Good, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
Following a trial by jury, Petitioner (Appellant) was convicted of inflicting injury in the perpetration of a robbery or attempted robbery and was sentenced to life imprisonment. On direct appeal, this Court affirmed the conviction. Hill v. State, (1979) 271 Ind. 86, 390 N.E.2d 167. This appeal is from the denial of post-conviction relief.
Petitioner claims that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel upon direct appeal and that the jury's return of inconsistent and contradictory verdicts necessitates a reversal of his conviction.
Following Petitioner's conviction, his trial attorney filed a Motion to Correct Errors, which included, inter alia, a claim that the jury's verdict was inconsistent and contradictory in that the Petitioner had been charged in two counts with (1) robbery and (2) inflicting an injury in the perpetration of a robbery, both for the same act, and that the jury returned a verdict of guilty upon the second count but failed to return a verdict upon the first count. Subsequently, the Office of the Indiana Public Defender pursued Petitioner's direct appeal. In preparing that appeal, it was decided that Petitioner's claim upon the issue of inconsistent verdicts was without merit; hence, it was not argued on direct appeal. It is that decision by the Public Defender which Petitioner claims was a denial of effective assistance of appellate counsel.
We must first determine whether the issue of inconsistent verdicts was meritorious and should have been argued on direct appeal. In Beck v. State, (1978) 269 Ind. 576, 382 N.E.2d 164, a nearly identical issue was presented to this Court. There, as in the case at bar, the appellant argued that the failure to return a verdict on the robbery charge was equivalent to a verdict of not guilty on that charge. Then, the reasoning continued, if one is not guilty of robbery, how could he be guilty of armed robbery (or, in this case, inflicting injury in the perpetration of a robbery)? Justice Hunter explained:
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