Owen v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 234 Conn. App. 481

Syllabus

The petitioner, who previously had been convicted of murder, appealed after the habeas court denied his petition for certification to appeal from the court's judgment denying his third petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He claimed, inter alia, that the court abused its discretion in requiring that his withdrawal prior to trial of certain counts and claims in his habeas petition be with prejudice. Held: The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petitioner certification to appeal, as he failed to show that his claims 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's requirement that any withdrawal of counts or claims in the petitioner's habeas petition would be with prejudice did not constitute an abuse of the court's discretion, as the petitioner's conviction was nearly twenty years old, he had withdrawn, on the eve of trial, two previous habeas petitions he had filed, and his third habeas petition was seven years old. The habeas court properly determined that the petitioner failed to demon- strate that his counsel at his criminal trial rendered ineffective assistance by failing to properly investigate and prepare an alibi defense, as the peti- tioner failed to call alibi witnesses to testify at the habeas trial and the court found that the petitioner had ''zero credibility'' regarding his claims that he never discussed an alibi defense with counsel and had told counsel that he did not want to testify at the trial. Argued December 10, 2024—officially released August 19, 2025