Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

WA: Defense counsel not ineffective for not forecasting Gant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defense counsel was not ineffective for not forecasting Gant. State v. Pearsall, 2010 Wash. App. LEXIS 1104 (May 25, 2010): At the time of the search and throughout Pearsall's trial, the United States Supreme Court had not yet issued Gant. There is no basis for us to find ineffective assistance for defense counsel's failure to move to suppress evidence in anticipation of a change in the law. See Millan, 151 Wn. App. at 502-03 (citing United States v. Fields, 565 F.3d 290, 296 (5th Cir. 2009); State v. McFarland, 127 Wn.2d 322, 335-36, 899 P.2d 1251 (1995)). In State v. Contrerras, 92 Wn. App. 307, 318-19, 966 P.2d 915 (1998), for example, we refused to reverse a conviction on ineffective assistance grounds when Contrerras could not demonstrate that the trial court would have granted a motion to suppress even if defense counsel had brought such a motion...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 27, 2010 (boomark / email).