Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Dentrell Brown v. Richard Brown

Case No.: 16-1014

Officials: KANNE, SYKES, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Petitioner Dentrell Brown and his co-defendant Joshua Love were convicted of murder in a joint trial in an Indiana court. After exhausting state court remedies, Brown filed a federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He claims he was denied effective assistance of counsel when his lawyer failed to insist that the judge give the limiting instruction required when evidence of a co-defendant’s out-of-court confession is introduced in a joint trial. See Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968) (protecting codefendant from testimonial confessions of other co-defendants). The district court denied the habeas petition, finding that Brown had procedurally defaulted this claim for ineffective assistance of trial counsel by failing to assert it in state court so that federal review is barred. Brown has appealed. On the issue of procedural default, we hold that the form of “cause” found in Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. —, 132 S. Ct. 1309 (2012), and expanded in Trevino v. Thaler, 569 U.S. —, 133 S. Ct. 1911 (2013), is available to federal habeas corpus petitioners in Indiana who have substantial claims for ineffective assistance of trial counsel that have been procedurally defaulted in state post-conviction proceedings by lack of any counsel or lack of effective counsel. Brown is entitled to an opportunity to overcome procedural default of his claim for ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failure to request a limiting instruction if he can both demonstrate ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel and assert a substantial claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We conclude that he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing.

Reversed and Remanded

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