Williams v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseAppellant Algernon Williams was convicted of shooting into a dwelling, when ballistics testing revealed that the shots were fired from a gun he had admitted owning, and which was in his possession during the time of the shooting. He claimed he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial for not filing any post-trial motions or by failing to adequately investigate and subpoena his only proposed witness sooner. Upon review, the issues presented to the Supreme Court on appeal were not based on facts fully apparent from the record. Therefore, the Court concluded the claims were more appropriate for post-conviction-relief petitions. Viewing Appellant's petition as one for post-conviction relief, the Court reviewed the claims in light of the applicable legal authority. The Court concluded that Appellant did not show he was denied his Sixth-Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel, nor did he make an argument challenging the weight or sufficiency of the evidence presented against him at trial: "There [was] no reason to believe the outcome of this case would have been any different had [Appellant's] attorneys filed the post-trial motions at issue." Therefore the Court dismissed both of Appellant's claims without prejudice.
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