Dartez v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseCorrey Dartez was found guilty of murder by a Harrison County jury and sentenced to life in prison in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The trial court denied Dartez’s post-trial motion for a new trial or judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Dartez appealed his conviction, arguing to the Supreme Court that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to raise an insanity defense and for not challenging the introduction into evidence of Dartez’s confession to the police that he had killed his wife Victoria. The Court declined to address Dartez’s ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim on direct appeal. “Whether Dartez’s trial counsel should have raised an insanity defense and whether trial counsel should have challenged Dartez’s confession involves facts not fully apparent from the record before us. Thus, we are unable adequately and properly to address Dartez’s ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim on direct appeal. Therefore, we affirm Dartez’s conviction.” The Court left it open to Dartez to represent his claim through a petition for post-conviction relief.
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