Taft v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 229 Conn. App. 548

Syllabus

The respondent, the Commissioner of Correction, appealed, on the granting of certification, from the habeas court's judgment granting the petitioner's second amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The respondent claimed that the habeas court improperly determined that the petitioner demonstrated that he was prejudiced by the alleged ineffective assistance of his first habeas counsel, M, for failing to present certain transcripts from the criminal trial of the petitioner's codefendant, Z, at the petitioner's first habeas trial. Held: The habeas court improperly granted the petitioner's second amended peti- tion, that court having improperly determined that the petitioner established that he was prejudiced by M's allegedly deficient performance, as the peti- tioner did not present the testimony of the witnesses who had testified at the criminal trials of the petitioner and Z at the second habeas trial and did not offer any evidence concerning how those witnesses would have testified had they been cross-examined about a reward that had been offered prior to the petitioner's criminal trial and about the recantation of certain testi- mony by one of those witnesses, and, therefore, the second habeas court improperly speculated about the prejudicial nature of their possible testi- mony and improperly assessed their credibility. Argued April 16—officially released December 17, 2024