Stalk v. State

• Decision Date: 10 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 26697.,26697.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: James STALK, Petitioner, v. STATE of South Carolina, Respondent.

681 S.E.2d 592

James STALK, Petitioner, v. STATE of South Carolina, Respondent.

No. 26697.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Submitted May 28, 2009.

Decided August 10, 2009.

Rehearing Denied September 3, 2009.

Chief Appellate Defender Joseph L. Savitz, III, of South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, of Columbia, for Petitioner.

Attorney General Henry Dargan McMaster, Chief Deputy Attorney General John W. McIntosh, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Salley W. Elliott, and Assistant Attorney General David Spencer, all of Columbia, for Respondent.

Justice PLEICONES:

We granted petitioner's (Stalk's) petition for a writ of certiorari to review a Court of Appeals decision which reversed a circuit court order granting Stalk post-conviction relief (PCR). Stalk v. State, 375 S.C. 289, 652 S.E.2d 402 (Ct.App.2007). We affirm as modified.

FACTS/PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Stalk pleaded guilty to twelve charges¹ and received an aggregate sentence of fifty years. He took no direct appeal, but filed a PCR application which was granted after an evidentiary hearing, the PCR judge finding Stalk's plea counsel rendered ineffective assistance. The Court of Appeals granted the State's petition for a writ of certiorari to review that order.

A claim of ineffective assistance of guilty plea counsel requires the applicant present evidence satisfying two prongs: first, evidence that counsel's performance was deficient; and second, evidence that the applicant was prejudiced by that deficiency. Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985). Plea counsel is ineffective within the meaning of the Sixth Amendment only when the applicant satisfies both requirements. Id. In its opinion, the Court of Appeals reversed, finding no evidence that counsel was "ineffective" or any evidence that Stalk was prejudiced by counsel's "ineffectiveness." In its analysis, the Court of Appeals mislabeled as "Ineffective Assistance of Counsel" the section analyzing whether there was evidence to support the PCR judge's finding that Stalk had shown plea counsel's "deficient performance." We modify the Court of Appeals' opinion to the extent that it confuses the requirement that Stalk must show deficient performance, with the ultimate question: whether he has demonstrated ineffective assistance of counsel entitling him to PCR.

ISSUE

Did the Court of Appeals misapprehend the prejudice standard in a guilty plea ineffective assistance of counsel claim?

ANALYSIS

Stalk maintains that, assuming that he has shown counsel's performance to be deficient, in order to obtain PCR he need only present testimony that but for that deficient performance, he would not have pleaded guilty but would have insisted on going to trial. Stalk maintains that the question whether counsel's deficient act(s) of omission or commission would have led to evidence which in turn would have affected the decision to plead guilty goes to the "deficiency prong" rather than to the "prejudice prong" of an ineffective assistance claim. He therefore argues the Court of Appeals in this case misapplied the ineffective assistance of plea counsel test. We find no error in the Court of Appeals' prejudice analysis.

In Hill, the United States Supreme Court explained:

We hold, therefore, that the two-part Strickland v. Washington[466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)] test applies to challenges to guilty pleas based on ineffective assistance of counsel. In the context of guilty pleas, the first half of the Strickland v. Washington test is nothing more than a restatement of the standard of attorney competence already set forth in Tollett v. Henderson, supra,[411 U.S. 258, 93 S.Ct. 1602, 36 L.Ed.2d 235 (1973)] and McMann v. Richardson, supra[397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970)]. The second, or "prejudice," requirement, on the other hand, focuses on whether counsel's constitutionally ineffective performance affected the outcome of the plea process. In other words, in order to satisfy the "prejudice" requirement, the defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.

In many guilty plea cases, the "prejudice" inquiry will closely resemble the inquiry engaged in by courts reviewing ineffective-assistance challenges to convictions obtained through a trial. For example, where the alleged error of counsel is a failure to investigate or discover potentially exculpatory evidence, the determination whether the error "prejudiced" the defendant by causing him to plead guilty rather than go to trial will depend on the likelihood that discovery of the evidence would have led counsel to change his recommendation as to the plea. This assessment, in turn, will depend in large part on a prediction whether the evidence likely would have changed the outcome of a trial. Similarly, where the alleged error...