Ledbetter v. Commissioner of Correction
| Decision Date | 13 September 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 17374.,17374. |
| Citation | 275 Conn. 451,880 A.2d 160 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | Robin LEDBETTER v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION. |
Conrad Ost Seifert, special public defender, with whom was Beth A. Hogan, special public defender, for the appellant (petitioner).
Bruce R. Lockwood, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were James E. Thomas, state's attorney, and John F. Fahey, assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (respondent).
Marsha L. Levick, pro hac vice, Lourdes M. Rosado, pro hac vice, and Martha Stone, Hartford, filed a brief for the Juvenile Law Center et al. as amici curiae.
BORDEN, KATZ, PALMER, VERTEFEUILLE and ZARELLA, Js.
The petitioner, Robin Ledbetter, appeals from the judgment of the habeas court denying her amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. The petitioner claims that her trial counsel was ineffective because he conceded that her confession was made voluntarily, thereby precluding her from appealing an issue of state constitutional law. We disagree and, accordingly, affirm the judgment of the habeas court.
In the underlying criminal action, the petitioner was charged with felony murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54c, conspiracy to commit robbery in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-134 (a)(3) and 53a-48 (a), attempt to commit robbery in the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-134 (a)(3) and 53a-49 (a)(2), and robbery in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-134 (a)(3). A jury found the petitioner guilty of all charges except robbery in the first degree. The trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the jury verdict, sentencing the petitioner to a total effective term of fifty years imprisonment. We affirmed the trial court's judgment of conviction on appeal. State v. Ledbetter, 263 Conn. 1, 22, 818 A.2d 1 (2003).
The petitioner thereafter filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. The habeas court denied the petition and subsequently granted certification to appeal to the Appellate Court. The petitioner appealed to the Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199(c) and Practice Book § 65-1.
The record reveals the following relevant facts.1 In the predawn hours of February 24, 1996, the petitioner, a fourteen year old runaway from an "alternative to detention" program affiliated with the department of children and families (department), and Lucis Richardson attempted to rob a taxicab driver by entering the taxicab's backseat and demanding money while threatening the driver with an object that resembled a firearm. When the driver did not respond immediately, Richardson struck the driver with the object. A struggle ensued, and the petitioner fatally stabbed the driver with a kitchen knife.
Using telephone records, officers of the Hartford police department took less than four hours to trace the perpetrators of the crime to an apartment where the petitioner and Richardson had been staying with friends that evening. Id., at 6-7, 818 A.2d 1. When the police arrived at the apartment, the petitioner fled through a back door. Id., at 7, 818 A.2d 1. Richardson remained to answer the door and, in response to police questioning, denied that he had any knowledge of the taxicab incident and told the police that the petitioner had been at the apartment earlier that evening. Id.
The Hartford police located the petitioner and took her into custody on the evening of February 27, 1996. That evening at the police station, the petitioner met privately with her estranged father, Willie Ledbetter, who long ago had relinquished guardianship of the petitioner but retained his parental rights. The petitioner's father encouraged the petitioner to make a statement to the police describing her role in the incident, advising her that it would be in her best interests and a "Christian" thing to do. The petitioner's father also advised the petitioner that, because she claimed not to have stabbed the victim, she could not be charged with murder, and that, because she was a juvenile, she could not be held beyond her eighteenth birthday.2
While the petitioner's father had had considerable experience with Connecticut's criminal courts as a consequence of his own criminal record, his advice was inaccurate on both points. The petitioner was unaware of this inaccuracy, however, when she received her father's advice. The police never informed the petitioner that her case could be transferred to the regular criminal docket and, if so, that she would be tried and sentenced as an adult.
Disregarding the advice of a department social worker that she consult an attorney, the petitioner waived her Miranda3 rights and tendered a written statement to the police shortly after midnight on February 28, 1996. In her statement, the petitioner described her active role in the attempted robbery, but accused Richardson of inflicting the fatal stab wound. The petitioner was arrested and charged with the victim's murder. Thereafter, her case automatically was transferred from juvenile court to the regular criminal docket.4
Assistant public defender Michael Isko represented the petitioner at her criminal trial. Prior to trial, Isko filed a motion to suppress the petitioner's statement to the police on the grounds that the petitioner: (1) was not advised, or at least was provided with incomplete information, about the consequences of her statement, one of which was that her case could be transferred to the regular criminal docket; and (2) received no information about the role or function of counsel. As a consequence, Isko argued, the petitioner had not "voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently waive[d] her Miranda rights . . . and her statement was not voluntary, knowingly and intelligently made."
At the December 16, 1999 suppression hearing, however, Isko conceded that the petitioner had made her statement voluntarily. In response to the court's questioning, Isko repeatedly confirmed that the petitioner had made her statement voluntarily while continuing to contend that she had not made it "intelligently and knowingly...."5 The trial court denied the motion to suppress, concluding that the petitioner's statement was knowing, intelligent and voluntary. In so concluding, the trial court considered the totality of the circumstances, including Isko's concession regarding voluntariness.
Isko later explained that he conceded voluntariness "to preclude" the court from charging the jury regarding the statement's voluntariness. Isko believed that any charge regarding voluntariness would harm his client's chances with the jury by highlighting the state's "very powerful evidence" contradicting any possible claim of involuntariness by the petitioner.6
Following her conviction and sentencing, and an unsuccessful direct appeal to this court,7 the petitioner filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner claimed that Isko ineffectively had represented her at trial and had prejudiced her defense, thereby violating her rights under the United States and Connecticut constitutions.8
Before the habeas court, the petitioner identified Isko's concession of voluntariness as the only deficient aspect of his performance. The petitioner argued that, by failing to preserve the issue of voluntariness, Isko had precluded her from appealing on the theory that the failure of the police to inform her that she could be charged and tried as an adult rendered her statement involuntary, in violation of article first, § 8, of the constitution of Connecticut.9 The respondent, the commissioner of correction, countered that Isko's decision to concede voluntariness was largely immune from judicial second-guessing as a "strategic or tactical [choice] . . . ." The respondent also argued that, even if Isko had performed deficiently,
The habeas court applied the test set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), which requires an ineffective assistance of counsel claim to be supported by evidence establishing both (1) counsel's deficient performance, and (2) prejudice suffered by the claimant as a result of such deficient performance. With respect to the first element, the habeas court characterized Isko's concession as a "tactical decision," which, "[a]s a rule, courts are reluctant to second guess. . . ." With respect to the second element, the habeas court concluded that the statement's voluntariness "remained an issue throughout the trial and was presented to the jury," and, therefore, that Isko's concession did not prejudice the petitioner's defense. The habeas court also rejected the petitioner's theory based on her right against self-incrimination under article first, § 8, as "speculative at best." Accordingly, the habeas court denied the petition.
We begin our discussion by noting that the effectiveness of an attorney's representation of a criminal defendant is "a mixed determination of law and fact that ... requires plenary review . . . ." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Phillips v. Warden, 220 Conn. 112, 131, 595 A.2d 1356 (1991). The sixth amendment to the United States constitution guarantees a criminal defendant "the assistance of counsel for his defense." U.S. Const., amend. VI. "It is axiomatic that the right to counsel is the right to the effective assistance of counsel." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Phillips v. Warden, supra, at 132, 595 A.2d 1356.
A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel consists of two components: a "performance prong" and a "prejudice...
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