Supreme Court of Florida

Petition for postconviction relief on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel is denied as to petitioner's conviction, and granted and remanded as to sentencing where: 1) the federal Strickland test was the proper standard for evaluating ineffective-assistance claims brought in state postconviction proceedings; 2) petitioner's counsel's failure to timely request disqualification of the trial judge for evidence of bias and predisposition was deficient performance; 3) petitioner was not prejudiced by this deficiency with respect to his conviction; but 4) petitioner was prejudiced with respect to his eventual sentencing.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/28/2008
• Published 08/28/2008

Judges

• ANSTEAD, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Nancy Daniels, Public Defender, and Phil Patterson, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, FL, for Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Trisha Meggs Pate, Assistant Attorney General, Bureau Chief, Christine A. Guard, and Giselle Lylen Rivera, Assistant Attorneys General, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent.