Plea & Sentencing – Ineffective Assistance of Couns

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Isaiah Hicks v. United States of America

Case No.: 16-2592

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

Focus: Plea & Sentencing – Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

A jury found Isaiah Hicks guilty of multiple drug offenses. He was sentenced to 360 months in prison. After we upheld his convictions and sentence on direct appeal, he filed a pro se motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 claiming that that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel. Hicks asserted that his attorney failed to explain to him the breadth of conspiracy law, understated the evidence against him, and failed to confer with him about pleading guilty. Going to trial cost him a potential reduction in his offense level at sentencing, Hicks claimed, which would have lowered his recommended guideline range and ultimate sentence. The district court denied the § 2255 motion without a hearing. We affirm. Hicks’s argument that his attorney’s performance prejudiced him is too speculative to require an evidentiary hearing.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.