Petitioner Receives Relief Because Trial Counsel Recommended Rejecting Plea Offer
Williams v. Jones, No. 06-7103, 7/8/09 - Defendant was charged in Oklahoma state court with first degree murder and was offered plea to second degree and a ten year sentence. Believing defendant to be innocent, his lawyer told him to reject the offer or get a new lawyer. Defendant went to trial, was convicted, and got life without parole. State courts agreed that counsel rendered ineffective assistance, and the OCCA also found prejudice, but limited its remedy to reducing sentence to life with the possibility of parole, the lowest possible sentence for first degree. On federal habeas, defendant claimed the remedy was inadequate. The district court found the reduced sentence to be inherently constitutional and denied the petition. The 10 reversed, holding that the remedy was an objectively unreasonable application of federal law. The federal standard is to “impose a remedy that comes as close as possible to remedying the constitutional violation, and is not limited by state law.” The case was remanded to the state district court for briefing and argument on what the appropriate remedy should be. Judge Gorsuch dissented because, in his view, getting a fair trial means defendant cannot demonstrate prejudice from the IAC.
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