Pagan v. Smith

Citations

• 236 Conn. App. 196

Syllabus

The petitioner, who previously had been found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect of various charges in connection with the sexual assault of a minor and committed to the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, appealed, on the granting of certification, from the habeas court's judgment denying in part his second habeas petition. He claimed, inter alia, that the court erred in concluding that his counsel from a prior habeas action, M, did not provide ineffective assistance because she failed to raise certain claims concerning the alleged failure of his trial counsel, H, to advise him of the consequences of pursuing a defense of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Held: This court, as a reviewing court, could not conclude that the petitioner had met his burden to establish that M had rendered ineffective assistance, as the subordinate facts underlying the petitioner's claim were in dispute and had not been resolved by the habeas court. The habeas court incorrectly determined that the successive petition doc- trine barred the petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of prior habeas counsel, as the petitioner's claim that M had provided ineffective assistance by failing to raise the claims identified in count one of the habeas petition, which related to the alleged ineffective assistance provided by H in connec- tion with the underlying criminal proceedings, was premised on a different legal ground than the claims the petitioner raised in the prior habeas action. This court could not affirm the habeas court's judgment on the basis that its failure to address the petitioner's claim was harmless, as this court could not assume, from the habeas court's general conclusions, that it had concluded that the petitioner failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that M's assistance was ineffective, and the habeas court's factual findings did not implicitly resolve the petitioner's claim. Because the judge who heard the habeas action