Allen v. Commissioner of Correction
Allen v. Commissioner of Correction
Opinion
The petitioner, Anthony Allen, appeals from the judgment denying his petition for certification to appeal from the habeas court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner claims that the court abused its discretion in denying his petition for certification because the record before it clearly established that counsel at his criminal trial rendered ineffective assistance by failing to make a timely request that his jury be polled to assure the unanimity of its verdict. We disagree and thus dismiss the appeal.
The following procedural history is relevant to this appeal. The petitioner was charged with and convicted, after a jury trial, of capital felony in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54b (8) and 53a-8 (a), murder in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54a and 53a-8 (a), conspiracy to commit murder in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-48 (a) and 53a-54a, attempt to commit assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-49 (a)(2) and 53a-59 (a)(5), and conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree in violation of §§ 53a-48 (a) and 53a-59 (a)(5).
Our Supreme Court affirmed the petitioner's convictions on direct appeal.
State v. Allen,
The petitioner thereafter filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging that his criminal trial counsel had been ineffective in failing to make a timely request that his jury be polled. The habeas court held a hearing on the petition, at which the court asked the petitioner's habeas counsel, Joseph Visone, how the petitioner had been prejudiced by his trial counsel's allegedly deficient
failure to timely request a jury poll. Visone cited
State v. Pare,
"Faced with a habeas court's denial of a petition for certification to appeal, a petitioner can obtain appellate review of the dismissal of his petition for habeas corpus only by satisfying the two-pronged test enunciated by our Supreme Court in
Simms v. Warden,
"In order to establish an ineffective assistance of counsel claim a petitioner must meet the two-pronged test enunciated in
Strickland v. Washington,
The petitioner claims on appeal that the habeas court erred in denying his petition on the merits based upon his failure to prove that he had been prejudiced by his trial counsel's failure to timely request a jury poll because the prejudice prong "is presumed .... satisfied where there is a basis for believing that the jury may not have been unanimous and trial counsel's motion to poll the jury was not timely." 1 In response, the respondent, the Commissioner of Correction, argues, inter alia, that the petitioner waived this claim before the habeas court, as demonstrated by the previously quoted statements by his habeas counsel. We agree with the respondent.
"[W]aiver is [t]he voluntary relinquishment or abandonment-express or implied-of a legal right or notice.... In determining waiver, the conduct of the parties is of great importance.... [W]aiver may be effected by action of counsel.... When a party consents to or expresses satisfaction with an issue at trial, claims arising from that issue are deemed waived and may not be reviewed on appeal.... Thus, [w]aiver ... involves the idea of assent, and assent is an act of understanding." (Internal quotation
marks omitted.)
State v. Thompson,
Here, Visone conceded that he could not prove that the petitioner had been prejudiced by trial counsel's failure to timely request a jury poll. Visone also explicitly acknowledged that prejudice is presumed only if a request to poll is timely, and that there had been no such timely request in this case. Because Visone affirmatively waived the claim of presumed prejudice, or prejudice on any other basis, we conclude that the habeas court properly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus and thus that the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petition for certification to appeal.
The appeal is dismissed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Because the habeas court denied the petition on the basis of the petitioner's failure to prove prejudice, our review on appeal is confined to that determination, and the issue of whether the petitioner satisfied the first prong of Strickland is not before us.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Anthony ALLEN v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published