Miguel Tebalan Rivera v. State of Rhode Island

Syllabus

The state filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to review a Superior Court judgment granting Miguel Tebalan Rivera's application for postconviction relief. The state challenged the trial justice's finding of ineffective assistance of counsel, claiming that the trial justice (1) overlooked or misconceived evidence that Rivera's trial counsel (trial counsel) advised him that he would need to testify in order to assert that he killed the decedent in self-defense (2) erred in finding that trial counsel otherwise performed deficiently in \discourag[ing]\ Rivera from testifying and in failing to move to exclude Rivera's recorded statement to police and (3) erred in relying on Rivera's statements at sentencing and in a presentence report to find that trial counsel's performance prejudiced Rivera. The Supreme Court concluded that the trial justice did not err in finding that trial counsel provided Rivera with constitutionally ineffective assistance. The Supreme Court determined that trial counsel's unreasonable mistake of law as to the effect of a denial of Rivera's motion to dismiss, and consequent failure to advise Rivera that waiving his right to testify would result in an immediate and certain conviction, constituted deficient performance. Furthermore, the Supreme Court held that the trial justice had sufficient evidence to conclude that Rivera was prejudiced by trial counsel's deficient performance and that the trial justice did not err in so concluding. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court.