Smorodska v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 217 Conn. App. 171

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had been convicted, on a plea of guilty, of, inter alia, arson in the first degree, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that her trial counsel, S, rendered ineffective assistance by failing to properly advise her about the immigration consequences of her pleading guilty. The petitioner was born in Ukraine, entered the United States on a temporary visa that had expired, and was not lawfully residing in the country at the time of her arrest and conviction. S testified at the habeas trial that he advised the petitioner that arson in the first degree consti- tuted an aggravated felony that subjected the petitioner to deportation and removal, that the assumption and the presumption should be that she would be deported or removed, and that he made no representation to the petitioner that anything could occur aside from her being deported for an aggravated felony conviction. S further testified that he informed the petitioner that a plea pursuant to North Carolina v. Alford (400 U.S. 25) ''may or may not'' have an effect on the matters considered by immigration officials, but it would not rescue her from being deported or reduce the strength of the case the immigration authorities had against her. The petitioner ultimately pleaded guilty pursuant to the Alford doctrine. Following trial, the habeas court denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus, finding that S had unequivocally conveyed to the petitioner that the immigration consequences of her guilty plea to a charge of arson in the first degree was deportation mandated by federal law, that there was no credible evidence that S failed to adequately advise or affirmatively misadvised the petitioner about the deportation consequences of her plea agreement, and that the likelihood of deporta- tion was sufficiently explained to the petitioner. On the petitioner's appeal to this court, held that the habeas court properly concluded that S did not render deficient performance in advising the petiti