Issue

Effective assistance of counsel—defense counsel's purported concessions of guilt—defendant's stipulations—Harbison inapplicable

Summary

In defendant's appeal from his convictions for possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, the Court of Appeals' determination that the record failed to show whether defendant knowingly consented in advance to his trial counsel's admission of guilt–and its resulting remand of the case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on that issue–was reversed. There was no deficiency in defense counsel's performance regarding concessions–let alone per se prejudicial error pursuant to State v. Harbison, 315 N.C. 175 (1985), and State v. McAllister, 375 N.C. 455 (2020), which together provide the appropriate framework when a client's autonomy, not counsel's competence, is in issue–where defendant stipulated on the record to his counsel's purported concessions in two separate colloquies with the trial court and, moreover, counsel did not actually concede defendant's guilt, either explicitly or implicitly.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →