Ineffective assistance of counsel; Plea negotiations; People v White; Lafler v Cooper; Prejudice; Expert testimony; Diminished capacity defense; People v Carpenter

Concluding the trial court did not clearly err in finding that there was no plea offer on the table when defendant-Manol’s attorney (E) allegedly gave him erroneous advice and thus, he could not establish prejudice, the court rejected his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. He was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder. He asserted that E “unreasonably told him there was almost no chance that he could be convicted of second-degree murder. He contends that, but for this erroneous advice, there was a reasonable probability that the previous offer to plead guilty to second-degree murder would have been revived and that he would have accepted it.” However, he failed to show “that the prosecution made a renewed offer for him to plead guilty to second-degree murder after he rejected the offer that was extended when he was represented by his first lawyer. [E] testified at the Ginther hearing that his discussions with the prosecution about possible pleas were not ‘serious’ because they were ‘always . . . poised to go to trial.’ The prosecutor testified that she and [E] had only ‘brief discussions’ about potential plea offers. A county victim advocate testified that no plea offer was made to Manol when he was represented by” E. Thus, the court found no clear error by the trial court. Although defendant contended he “had discussions with [E] about pleading guilty to second-degree murder, he did not claim that there was in fact a subsequent plea offer made by the prosecution.” In addition, while E “testified that he believed Manol could have obtained such a plea offer had Manol wanted it, and although Manol testified that he would have taken such a plea if he had been advised by [E] to accept it, the record supports the trial court’s conclusion that no plea offer existed for Manol to have accepted or rejected at the time” E represented him. Affirmed.