Bobe v. Commissioner of Correction

Syllabus

The petitioner, who previously had been convicted of, inter alia, sexual assault in the second degree, appealed following the denial of his petition for certification to appeal from the habeas court's judgment denying his habeas petition. He claimed, inter alia, that the court erred in concluding that his criminal trial counsel did not provide ineffective assistance. Held: The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petition for certification to appeal because the petitioner failed to demonstrate that his claims involved issues that were debatable among jurists of reason, that a court could have resolved the issues in a different manner, or that the ques- tions were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further. The petitioner's claim that the habeas court abused its discretion and violated his due process rights under the federal and state constitutions by denying his motion for a continuance of the habeas trial was unavailing, as the peti- tioner's counsel acquiesced to the court's stated expectation that the trial would conclude if counsel was unable to offer assurances that he had other witnesses under subpoena for the scheduled second day of trial, the lone refer- ence the petitioner's counsel made to the court prior to the commencement of trial regarding the motion pertained to the court's stated concerns about the age of the case rather than to the presentation of witness testimony, the written motion was undisputedly silent regarding the need for more time to subpoena additional witnesses, and the reasons advanced by the petitioner's counsel in support of the motion were speculative in nature. The habeas court properly concluded that the petitioner failed to establish his claim of ineffective assistance of criminal trial counsel, as he failed to present sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption that his trial counsel's decision to predicate the defense on the fact that the petitioner had tested positive for human immunodeficienc