Time to turn this blog back on again . . .
It's been awhile, but there was a habeas grant in the district courts back in May. Here are the details:
- Habeas Granted
- 07-CV-4077, 2011 WL 1897655 (EDNY May 18, 2011) (NGG)
- Issue: IAC based on counsel's failure to give adequate alibi notice and call two alibi witnesses
ANALYSIS: It's a pretty short opinion for a habeas grant. Petitioner was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon. The facts were that a police officer saw two men outside a house party. He then saw one of the men throw a gun under a car. The officer later arrested petitioner outside the party, believing that petitioner was the one he saw throw the gun.
Petitioner's counsel submitted an offer of proof at trial that two witnesses would testify that petitioner was inside the party the whole time. However, counsel did not give alibi notice and, as a result, was precluded from calling these witnesses at trial.
The DJ concluded that this was ineffective. He pointed out that the record did not indicate that the failure to give alibi notice was a tactical decision. Rather, counsel just claimed that he had not been working on the case for very long before trial. The DJ pointed out that alibi notice was just a ministerial task that still could have been done under those circumstances. The DJ emphasized that these witnesses were important to petitioner's case and there was a "paucity" of evidence admitted against petitioner of trial. For those reasons, the deficient performance prejudiced petitioner and the state court's decision was unreasonable.
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