Commonwealth v. Ciotto

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• the court found that failure of trial counsel to file brief in support of post verdict motions “effectively denied [defendant’s] right to a direct appeal[.]”
• “dismissal of post-verdict motions on the basis of a procedural default in a criminal case, like a similar dismissal of a criminal appeal, improperly places the entire burden of counsel’s errors on the powerless” criminal defendant.
• “dismissal of post-verdict motions on the basis of a procedural default in a criminal case, like a similar dismissal of a criminal appeal, improperly places the entire burden of counsel’s errors on the powerless” criminal defendant.
• “dismissal of post-verdict motions on the basis of a procedural default in a criminal case, like a similar dismissal of a criminal appeal, improperly places the entire burden of counsel’s errors on the powerless” criminal defendant.
• when a defendant establishes that counsel’s ineffective assistance denied him entirely his right to a direct appeal, he is entitled to a direct appeal nunc pro tunc without regard to his ability to establish the merit of the issues which he seeks to raise on direct appeal
• failure to file briefs constitutes per se ineffectiveness

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).