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Trial Court?s Failure to Inquire into Reasons for Defendant?s Desire to Move for a New Trial Based on Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Can Reverse His Criminal Conviction

By Walin & Klarich

You must know that in California the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel may be asserted as the basis of your motion for a new trial pursuant to Penal Code section 1181. When the trial court failed to conduct any inquiry at all into the basis for your motion for a new trial, your conviction must be revered unless the record shows beyond a reasonable doubt that further inquiry into your claim would not have led to a different result in your case. As such, you will need to hire an experienced criminal law attorney who will carefully examine the records of your criminal case to make sure that you are entitled for your conviction to be reversed on appeal. In a hearing on a motion for a new trial based on incompetence of a trial counsel, the trial court has to ask questions to the defendant in order to fully understand his or her reasons for believing that such claim is valid...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on July 28, 2010 (boomark / email).