Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Justice O'Connor identified three categories of
cases in Strickland, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 2067. The first is
"actual or constructive denial of the assistance of counsel altogether,"
id., in which prejudice is so likely that it is assumed as a matter of
law without inquiry into the actual facts of the individual case.
United States v. Cronic, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657
(1984), addressed this problem. The second situation involves those
cases in which counsel has an actual conflict of interest. Again,
prejudice is presumed, provided "the defendant demonstrates that
counsel 'actively represented conflicting interests' and 'that an
actual conflict of interest adversely affected his lawyer's
performance.' " Strickland, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 2067,
citing Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 350, 348, 100 S.Ct. 1708,
1719, 1718, 64 L.Ed.2d 333 (1980). The final category, the one that
will most often arise and that Strickland concerned, involves claims
of actual ineffective representation
The proper focus of course should be on the
adversarial process rather than the defendant's assessment of his
lawyer's preparation. United States v. Cronic, --- U.S. at ---- n. 21,
104 S.Ct. at 2046 n. 21, citing Morris v. Slappy, 461 U.S. 1, 103 S.Ct.
1610, 75 L.Ed.2d 610 (1983). Consequently, little importance attaches
to Dillon's statement that he did not want Fulcher to withdraw (Tr.
Vol. IV at 841-842). What is most significant about this exchange is
Fulcher's belief that it was required at all. Evidently he felt it was
necessary to indicate on the record that Dillon appreciated the
significance of what Fulcher had alleged in his affidavit but
nevertheless desired Fulcher to continue to represent him, thereby
implying a waiver of Dillon's Sixth Amendment right to counsel. If so,
then the State's argument that Fulcher filed his affidavit to force
the State to plea bargain does not wash. This contention relies on an
extraordinary degree of client loyalty. If it were true, then one
would think Fulcher would let the alleged error pass, instead of
bringing it to the trial court's attention, insisting on the
questioning and so possibly allowing Dillon unknowingly to waive his
Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Contrary to the belief of the
Indiana Supreme Court, see Dillon v. State, 454 N.E.2d 845, 847
(Ind.1983), the judge did not question Dillon, and nothing in the
record suggests that the judge believed such questioning to be
necessary (Tr. Vol. IV at 841-842). The questioning does indicate a
very conscientious but inept attorney trying to conduct himself
properly but somehow bungling the matter. Interpreted in this light,
the exchange between Dillon and Fulcher provides additional evidence
of Fulcher's incompetent handling of the trial
The State also emphasized in its argument to the
trial court that when the State had asked Fulcher in June at a
pretrial conference whether he contemplated either withdrawing or
asking for a continuance, Fulcher had said "he didn't know about a
continuance," but "he wasn't going to withdraw" (Tr. Vol. III at 633).
Perhaps Fulcher should have realized earlier the impact his emotional
problems were having on his trial preparation. But that factor does
not illuminate whether he really was having those difficulties and to
what extent they were affecting his competence. Fulcher's comments
indicate that only when his father had emergency surgery did he
realize the extent to which the emotional stress he was under had
disabled him from preparing adequately (id. at 637-638). Even the
State had to concede that preparing for a murder trial "is a very
strenuous thing to go through" (id. at 633)
We were advised at oral argument that Dillon's
trial was Fulcher's first capital murder case. We also note that
appellate counsel advised us at oral argument that their involvement
with the case stemmed from their being appointed to assist Fulcher in
appealing Dillon's conviction and sentence. This appointment and
Fulcher's subsequent withdrawal from the case provide further evidence
of his unfamiliarity with this type of case and his ineffectiveness in
providing Dillon competent counsel
In July 1984 Fulcher was disbarred for two years
for neglect in prosecuting a case unrelated to the one before us, so
that this dilatory pattern of conduct is not new to him. See In the
Matter of Fulcher, 464 N.E.2d 327 (Ind.1984)
At the very least, the trial judge may have viewed
the attempted accomplice plea as a calculated attempt to avoid
punishment for the crime, and so as evidence that Dillon was in no way
repentant. Such an assessment would affect his weighing of aggravating
and mitigating circumstances. The only aggravating circumstance was
that of the murder's being committed during a burglary, which the
judge was to balance against the defendant's lack of any prior
criminal history and "[a]ny other circumstances appropriate for
consideration." Ind.Code Sec. 35-5-2-9 (1982). Given the defendant's
youth and lack of any criminal record, assessing the ultimate penalty
against him seems overly harsh. The painful deaths of the two victims
evidently influenced the trial judge against the defendant, for he
refused to consider Dillon's youth on the theory that the "capability
of such cruelty in the mind of one that age cannot be considered a
mitigating circumstance" (A. 22). This, of course, would particularly
be true when the young defendant was unrepentant. We note that if the
judge's logic were valid, then age would always work against young
defendants convicted of the truly serious crimes for which the death
penalty is permitted. The trial judge's statement reveals a
misapprehension regarding the purpose of age in mitigating punishment.
Judges and juries may consider age in mitigating the death penalty
because young defendants have more of an opportunity to change their
lives and to correct for one error than those who have more of a
history of criminal conduct and are more hardened to the consequences
for other people of their criminal acts. Consequently sentencing young
adults irrevocably to death may be unfair, a consideration the trial
judge refused to adopt
We agree with the district court that the
dissenting justices were "pleading for clearer findings by the state's
trial judges, but * * * such is a matter of form more than substance"
(Mem. Order of June 21, 1984), especially in light of the trial
court's explicit statement, in our eyes, that he had found each factor
beyond a reasonable doubt