The New York Law Journal reports today (article here, subscription only) that an EDNY judge has granted habeas relief based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The case is Usher v. Ercole, 06-CV-1126. I have not been able to find a published version of the case.
The headline of the article is, "Citing Ineffective Assistance, Court grants habeas petition of man convicted of child sexual abuse." Here's the opening paragraph of the article:
A federal judge in Brooklyn has granted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a man sentenced nine years ago to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl.
According to the article, the trial attorney did not sufficiently challenge the "relatively weak" physical evidence of abuse, among other mistakes. Apparently, this particular trial attorney has been cited in at least one other case for deficient performance.
While I am talking about district court cases, just wanted to mention that this week's Weekly Review has been delayed. It's the busy season for me. But it also seems to be the busy season for the district courts as there were a record number of habeas decisions last week. That combination has made it hard to get it done. I'll eventually get around to finalizing and posting it. Unfortunately, it may be later rather than sooner.
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