United States v. Phea, No. 17-50671 (5th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this CaseThe Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's denial of defendant's 28 U.S.C. 2255 petition, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. The court held that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object to an obvious constructive amendment to the superseding indictment. In this case, the trial court not only eliminated the scienter requirement of actual knowledge, the element defendant was indicted under, but lowered the factual basis required to prove this essential element from what defendant knew to what he had the reasonable opportunity to observe. Furthermore, counsel's failure to object prejudiced defendant. Accordingly, the court remanded for further proceedings.
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