Jeffries v. United States, No. 12-1971 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his sentence stemming from his plea of guilty to one count of abusive sexual contact with a child. At issue was whether defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel when his attorney failed to object to the government's alleged breach of the plea agreement. Determining that the court had jurisdiction to consider the appeal under the separate document requirement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58(a), the court concluded that, even assuming that defendant could show that his counsel's performance at sentencing was deficient, he failed to adequately allege that he was prejudiced. Accordingly, the district court did not err in declining to hold an evidentiary hearing on defendant's 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion and the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Habeas Petition - motion to vacate. Separate document rule (Rule 58(a)) applies in appeals from section 2255 proceedings. The district court's order, replete with legal analysis, requires a separate judgment. Because no separate judgment was entered, the judgment is considered entered 150 days after the filing of the order and the notice of appeal is thus timely filed. On the merits of the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel that counsel failed to object to government's alleged breach of the plea agreement, Jeffries did not demonstrate that he was prejudiced and the district court did not abuse its discretion in resolving the case without an evidentiary hearing.
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