Heywood v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 211 Conn. App. 102

Syllabus

The petitioner, a citizen of Jamaica, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that his trial counsel, R, had provided ineffective assistance by failing to unequivocally advise him that a guilty plea to the charge of risk of injury to a child would subject him to mandatory deportation. The petitioner initially was charged with offenses that exposed him to 160 years of incarceration before he pleaded guilty and received a lesser sentence, with the potential of no jail time, under a plea agreement offered by the state. The habeas court rendered judgment denying the habeas petition, concluding that, although R had rendered deficient performance by failing to clearly and unambiguously convey to the petitioner the certainty of his deportation, the petitioner had failed to demonstrate that he was prejudiced by that performance. Following the granting of the petition for certification to appeal, the petitioner appealed to this court. Held that the petitioner could not prevail on his claim that the habeas court improperly concluded that he had failed to satisfy the prejudice prong of Strickland v. Washington (466 U.S. 668); the court's conclusion that the petitioner had not satisfied the prejudice prong was supported by evidence in the record that the court found to be credible, namely, R's testimony that the petitioner was concerned with both the risk of deportation and the risk of incarceration, the state's case against the petitioner was strong, and it was likely that, if the petitioner had gone to trial and been convicted, the petitioner would have received a sentence of thirty years of incarceration; moreover, the court, having assessed the petitioner's testimony and having considered whether the petitioner rationally would have rejected the plea offer had he known that accepting it would result in mandatory deportation, did not find the petitioner's testimony to be credible. Argued December 1, 2021—officially released March 8, 2022