North Carolina Felonious Breaking Relief Ineffective Direct Appeal Misdemeanor Plea Agreement Lawyers Attorneys

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. MAURICE ALEXANDER ROBINSON, Defendant.

COURT OF APPEALS OF NORTH CAROLINA

August 24, 2010, Heard in the Court of Appeals

September 7, 2010, Filed

At the time of his trial, defendant had other pending charges, including felonious breaking or entering and felonious larceny after breaking or entering, and another charge of having attained habitual felon status. Defendant and the State entered into a plea agreement. The plea agreement provided that defendant would plead guilty to felonious breaking or entering, felonious larceny after breaking or entering, and to the felonious restraint charge, of which the jury had already convicted defendant. Defendant stipulated that two aggravating factors existed. In addition, defendant stipulated that he was a Level IV offender for felony sentencing purposes and that he was a Level III offender for misdemeanor sentencing purposes. Defendant received an aggravated sentence of 31 to 38 months imprisonment for felonious restraint; aggravated consecutive sentences of 14 to 17 months each for the breaking and entering and larceny charges; and consecutive sentences of 120 days each for the misdemeanors. Defendant filed a writ of certiorari and on appeal, defendant argues he must be granted a new trial on the felonious restraint charge because he was not afforded effective assistance of counsel.

Issues:

Whether the trial council was deficient?

Observation and Holding:

In general, claims of ineffective assistance of counsel should be considered through motions for appropriate relief and not on direct appeal. A motion for appropriate relief is preferable to direct appeal because in order to defend against ineffective assistance of counsel allegations, the State must rely on information provided by defendant to trial counsel, as well as defendant's thoughts, concerns, and demeanor. In this case, we find defendant's ineffective assistance claims are more properly raised in a motion for appropriate relief. Accordingly, we dismiss defendant's appeal without prejudice to defendant's right to assert his claim in the superior court in the form of a motion for appropriate relief.

Disclaimer:

These summaries are provided by the SRIS Law Group. They represent the firm's unofficial views of the Justices' opinions. The original opinions should be consulted for their authoritative content

North Carolina Felonious Breaking Relief Ineffective Direct Appeal Misdemeanor Plea Agreement Lawyers Attorneys

By: Atchuthan Sriskandarajah

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