Massachusetts Appeals Court· 10/29/2014

Commonwealth v. Martinez

Citations

86 Mass. App. Ct. 545

How courts have described this case

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

noting possible scenarios where prior counsel may be reluctant to cooperate with ineffective assistance allegation or where prior counsel refuses to respond to any communications from successor counsel
remanding case to enable judge to determine whether special circumstances exist based on defendant's residency in United States since early childhood, his employment, and fact that he has family, including common- law wife and three children, who are all United States citizens
defendant may defeat adverse inference from absence of plea counsel affidavit by filing \affidavits attesting to plea counsel's lack of cooperation\
when there is no affidavit provided from former counsel, judge can reasonably draw negative inference and conclude there is no affidavit because truthful affidavit would not assist defendant
defendant's minor role in low-value drug transaction supported finding of prejudice
\a lawyer who is aware that his assistance some five or ten years earlier was less than exemplary might very well be reluctant to describe that lapse in an affidavit intended for submission to a court where he regularly receives new appointments\

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Grainger, Rubin, Hanlon

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