Speer v. Stephens, No. 13-70001 (5th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePending before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was a motion by petitioner's federal habeas counsel to withdraw as counsel. Counsel argued that because he also represented petitioner during state habeas proceedings, it would be a conflict of interest for him to now determine whether his conduct was ineffective. Petitioner also requested the appointment of new counsel to investigate whether he has any viable claim under the rule established in the Supreme Court's decisions in "Martinez v. Ryan" and "Trevino v. Thaler." The Fifth Circuit did not read the Supreme Court's narrowly crafted decisions in Martinez or Trevino to require in this case the appointment of additional federal habeas counsel. "[P]etitioner's present lawyer is conflicted only in the sense that every lawyer charged to examine the performance of counsel is conflicted in that task when the performance is his own. That has no bearing on counsel's charge to argue the substantive claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We do not read the Supreme Court as requiring a second federally appointed lawyer to plow the same ground ably plowed by the first federally appointed lawyer with no suggestion or hint of any shortcoming on his part. By this manner of reason there is no end to the succession of potential appointments, for each previous lawyer might have been ineffective." Construing present counsel's motion to withdraw as a motion for the appointment of supplemental counsel, the Fifth Circuit granted that motion. Because the claims he brought were yet unresolved, the Court denied the motion of present counsel to withdraw. The case was remanded in part back to the district court solely to appoint supplemental counsel, and to consider in the first instance whether petitioner court establish cause for the procedural default of any ineffective-assistance-of-trial-counsel claims pursuant to Martinez and Trevino that he might raise, and if so, whether those claims merited relief.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on March 31, 2015.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 17, 2020.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on February 25, 2021.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 9, 2021.
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