Dixon v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 233 Conn. App. 851

Syllabus

The petitioner, who previously had been convicted of, inter alia, felony murder, appealed following the denial of his petition to appeal from the judgment of the habeas court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He claimed, inter alia, that the court abused its discretion by denying his petition for certification to appeal. Held: The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petitioner certification to appeal, as the petitioner failed to show that his claim involved issues that were debatable among jurists of reason, that a court could resolve them in a different manner or that they were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further. The habeas court properly determined that the petitioner did not meet his burden of demonstrating that his habeas counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to raise a claim that his criminal trial counsel provided constitutionally inadequate advice on a pretrial plea offer, as the court's finding that there was not a reasonable probability that the petitioner would have accepted the pretrial plea offer but for the deficient performance of his criminal trial counsel was not clearly erroneous and, thus, the petitioner could not establish prejudice resulting from any deficiency in the advice provided by his criminal trial counsel on that plea offer. Argued February 5—officially released July 22, 2025