Some Quick Thoughts on Adnan Syed’s Brief of Appellant

Today, Adnan Syed filed his Brief of Appellant to the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, seeking a new trial based upon the claim that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC). When I started writing about this case, the only live IAC claim was Adnan’s claim that his trial counsel was ineffective based on failing to ask the State about a possible plea bargain despite his repeated requests.  At the time, I gave an interview to vox.com in which I noted that Adnan was almost certain to be unsuccessful on this claim; I then followed up that interview with a blog post in which I went into more detail regarding why I thought this IAC claim would be unsuccessful. Quite simply, the law was not on Adnan’s side.

But then, in January, Asia McClain came forward with a new affidavit in which she stated that she stood by her claim that she saw Adnan in the library on January 13, 1999 and that she was dissuaded from testifying at Adnan’s PCR hearing by one of the prosecutors at Adnan’s initial trial(s). This led to Adnan filing a Supplement to his application for leave to appeal and the resuscitation of Adnan’s claim that his trial counsel was ineffective based on her failure to contact Asia McClain as a potential alibi witness. With this claim revived, I now reached the conclusion that Adnan’s appeal would be successful. Quite simply, this time, the law was on Adnan’s side.

In particular, there was a Court of Appeals of Maryland case, In re Parris W., 770 A.2d 202 (Md. 2001), in which Maryland’s highest court found that the constructive failure of an attorney to call alibi witnesses constituted the ineffective assistance of counsel. Moreover, the court in Parris W. cited several cases from across the country, all of which stood for the proposition that failure to contact an alibi witness constituted the ineffective assistance of counsel. Many of these cases are cited in Adnan’s appellate brief, including Griffin v. Warden, Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, 970 F.2d 1355 (4th Cir. 1992), a case involving the same courts that handled Adnan’s trial and appeal.

Some further research led me to find 50 cases from around the country in which courts deemed the failure to contact or investigate a potential alibi witness to be unreasonable or potentially unreasonable under circumstances similar to the circumstances in Adnan’s case. Conversely, I found no cases in which the opposite conclusion was reached. I am now up to 70 such cases, which are listed below the fold. It will be interesting to see if the State is able to find any cases reaching the opposite conclusion when it files its own brief next month.

1. In re Parris W., 770 A.2d 202 (Md. 2001).

2. Griffin v. Warden, Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, 970 F.2d 1355 (4^th Cir. 1992) (case involving the same courts handling Adnan’s trial and appeal).

3. Grooms v. Solem, 923 F.2d 88 (8^th Cir. 1991).

4. Montgomery v. Petersen, 846 F.2d 407 (7^th Cir. 1988).

5. Tosh v. Lockhart, 879 F.2d 412 (8^th Cir. 1989).

6. Johns v. Perini, 462 F.2d 1308 (6^th Cir. 1972).

7. Bryant v. Scott, 28 F.3d 1411 (5^th Cir. 1994).

8. Walker v. State, 756 S.E.2d 144 (S.C. 2014).

9. Toney v, Miller, 564 F.Supp.2d 577 (E.D.La. 2008).

10.  United States v. Johnson, 970 F.2d 907 (D.C. Cir. 1992).

11. Lopez v. Miller, 915 F.Supp.2d 373 (E.D.N.Y. 2014).

12. Washington v. Smith, 48 F.Supp.2d 1149 (E.D.Wis. 1999).

13. Butler v. McEwan, 2014 WL 2566069 (C.D.Cal. 2014).

14. Francis v. People, 2012 WL 3183823 (D.V.I. 2012).

15. Matthews v. Abramajtys, 319 F.3d 780 (6^th Cir. 2003).

16. Matthews v. Abramajtys, 92 F.Supp.2d 615 (E.D.Mich. 2000).

17. United States v. Williams, 2012 WL 38229 (D.Minn. 2012).

18. State v. Glover, 396 S.E.2d 198 (W.Va. 1990).

19. Ballard v. Hurt, 2014 WL 2404302 (W.Va. 2014).

20. State v. Glover, 355 S.E.2d 631 (W.Va. 1987).

21. State v. Sanford, 948 P.2d 1135 (Kan.App. 1997).

22. Montalvo v. Mantello, 233 F.Supp.2d 554 (S.D.N.Y. 2002).

23. Bigelow v. Williams, 367 F.3d 562 (6^th Cir. 2004).

24. Lawrence v. Armontrout, 900 F.2d 127 (8^th Cir. 1990).

25. Bell v. Georgia, 554 F.2d 1360 (5^th Cir. 1977).

26. Avery v. Prelesnik, 524 F.Supp.2d 903 (W.D.Mich. 2007).

27. Stewart v. Wolfenarger, 468 F.3d 338 (6^th Cir. 2006).

28. Ramonez v. Berghuis, 490 F.3d 482 (6^th Cir. 2007).

29. Gaines v. Commissioner of Correction, 51 A.3d 948 (Conn. 2012).

30. Ellerby v. United States, 187 F.3d 257 (2^nd Cir. 1998).

31. Rolan v. Vaughn, 445 F.3d 671 (3^rd Cir. 2006).

32. Holmes v. McKune, 59 Fed.Appx. 239 (10^th Cir. 2003).

33. Code v. Montgomery, 799 F.2d 1481 (11^th Cir. 1986).

34. Brown v. Myers, 137 F.3d 1154 (9^th Cir. 1988).

35. Moran v. Vose, 816 F.2d 35 (1^st Cir. 1987).

36. Teat v. State, 589 So.2d 815 (Ala.Crim. 1991).

37. Thomas v. State, 639 S.W.2d 353 (Ark. 1982).

38. People v. Shaw, 674 P.2d 759 (Cal. 1984).

39. State v. Allen, 1990 WL 1104263 (Del.Supr. 1990).

40. Jones v. United States, 918 A.2d 389 (D.C. 2007).

41. Cohens v. State, 775 So.2d 336 (Fla.App. 2^nd 2000).

42. Tenorio v. State, 583 S.E.2d 269 (Ga.App. 2003).

43. People v. Krankel, 447 N.E.2d 1379 (Ill.App. 4^th 1983).

44. Williams v. State, 508 N.E.2d 1264 (Ind. 1987).

45. State v. Cooks, 726 N.W.2d 633 (Wis.App. 2006).

46. Jones v. State, 133 S.W.3d 307 (Tex.App. 2004).

47. Commonwealth v. Bronson, 321 A.2d 645 (Penn. 1974).

48. Lichau v. Baldwin, 39 P.3d 851 (Or. 2002).

49. People v. Bussey, 6 A.D.3d 621 (N.Y.App.2^nd 2004).

50. State v. Porter, 80 A.3d 732 (N.J. 2013).

51. State v. Love, 865 P.2d 322 (Nev. 1993).

52. State v. McElveen, 544 P.2d 820 (Mont. 1975).

53. Mullen v. State, 638 S.W.2d 304 (Mo.App. 1982).

54. Johns v. State, 926 So.2d 188 (Miss. 2006).

55. People v. Akram, 2010 WL 3418913 (Mich.App. 2010).

56. Calene v. State, 846 P.2d 679 (Wyo. 19993).

57. Bigelow v. Haviland, 576 F.3d 284 (6^th Cir. 2009).

58. Blackburn v. Foltz, 828 F.2d 1177 (6^th Cir. 1987).

59. Raygoza v. Hulick, 474 F.3d 958 (7^th Cir. 2007).

60. Garcia v. Portuondo, 459 F.Supp.2d 267 (S.D.N.Y. 2006).

61. Miller v. Singetary, 958 F.Supp. 572 (M.D.Fla. 1997).

62. Stubbs v. Thomas, 590 F.Supp. 94 (S.D.N.Y. 1984).

63. Poindexter v. Booker, 301 Fed.Appx. 522 (6^th Cir. 2008).

64. Shumway v. State, 293 P.3d 772 (Kan.App. 2013).

65. Black v. State, 2004 WL 2914986 (Alaska App. 2004).

66. State v. Tapia, 725 P.2d 1096 (Ariz. 1986).

67. People v. Herrera, 534 P.2d 1199 (Colo. 1975).

68. Cunningham v. State, 788 P.2d 243 (Idaho App. 1990). 

69. Holland v. Commonwealth, 679 S.W.2d 832 (Ky.App. 1984).

70. Lagassee v. State, 655 A.2d 328 (Me. 1995).