Inglis v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 213 Conn. App. 496

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had been convicted of several crimes, including murder, as a result of a shooting in a nightclub, sought a writ of habeas corpus. He claimed that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance as to the petitioner's third-party culpability defense and the admission into evidence of eyewitness identifications of the petitioner. The petitioner further claimed that his right to due process under the state constitution (article first, §§ 8 and 9) was violated because the eyewitness identifica- tions of him were obtained through unnecessarily suggestive identifica- tion procedures. The petitioner had claimed that he could not properly be identified as the shooter because the witnesses could not distinguish between him and his brother, W, who was present at the time of the shooting. The trial court declined the petitioner's request to instruct the jury on third-party culpability, reasoning that the evidence failed to establish a direct connection between W and the crimes at issue. The petitioner claimed that his trial counsel were ineffective for having filed a request to charge that did not adequately refer to the evidence in support of the charge, which, in turn, resulted in the court's declining to give the jury a third-party culpability instruction. The habeas court rendered judgment denying the petition and, thereafter, denied the peti- tioner certification to appeal, and the petitioner appealed to this court. Held: 1. The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petitioner certification to appeal with respect to his claims that his trial counsel were ineffective in litigating his third-party culpability defense and issues relating to the admission at trial of the eyewitness identifications of him: a. The habeas court properly determined that the petitioner was not prejudiced by his trial counsel's failure to cite certain evidence in their request for a jury instruction on third-party culpability, the petitioner having failed to