Antonio Wicks v. State of Tennessee

Syllabus

A Shelby County jury convicted Petitioner, Antonio Wicks, of second degree murder in the death of the victim, Donald Miller, and the trial court sentenced Petitioner to 25 years' incarceration as a Range I violent offender. This court affirmed Petitioner's conviction on direct appeal. See State v. Antonio Wicks, No. W2011-00964-CCA-R3-CD, 2012 WL 1424717, at 1 (Tenn. Crim. App. Apr. 23, 2012), perm. app. denied (Tenn. Aug. 16, 2012). Petitioner filed a pro se post-conviction petition and four amended petitions following the appointment of counsel. Following a hearing, the postconviction court denied relief. Petitioner now appeals, claiming that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel because trial counsel failed to (1) move for a mistrial due to only having eleven jurors (2) file a motion to dismiss the indictment pursuant to State v. Ferguson, 2 S.W.3d 912, 915-16 (Tenn. 1999) (3) cross-examine the State's witness regarding the loss or destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence (4) object to improper prosecutorial argument and (5) raise in the motion for new trial and on direct appeal the failure to cross-examine a witness and improper prosecutorial argument. After a thorough review of the record and applicable case law, the judgment of the postconviction court is affirmed.