Owens v. Delaware
Annotate this CaseAfter defendant-appellant Roderick Owens was convicted of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited and, separately, of possession of ammunition by a person prohibited, and the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed those convictions on direct appeal, Owens moved for postconviction relief under Superior Court Criminal Rule 61. Owens claimed the proceedings leading to his convictions were unfair in a way that was not remediable on direct appeal. Owens also complained that his trial counsel failed to investigate and present friendly witnesses at a hearing on a motion to suppress. These deficiencies, according to Owens, amounted to ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and that his case would have been resolved more favorably had his counsel more ably assisted him. The superior court rejected Owens’s bid to have his convictions set aside on those grounds. To this, the Supreme Court concurred: Owens’s trial counsel conveyed all plea offers to Owens is supported by trial counsel’s affidavit and entitled to our deference, and Owens’s trial counsel’s analysis of the relevance of the potential witnesses’ testimony and his decision not to call them was reasonable.
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