Brown v. Baskin, 286 Ga. 681

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the grant of habeas corpus relief to Charles Baskin based on ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. The court held that appellate counsel was deficient for failing to raise trial counsel’s failure to preserve a Confrontation Clause challenge involving cross-examination of a key witness about pending criminal charges. The court also concluded that the error was prejudicial because the evidence was not overwhelming beyond a reasonable doubt.

Holdings

1. Appellate counsel performed deficiently by failing to raise trial counsel's failure to preserve the issue of cross-examining the victim about pending criminal charges, where counsel had notice of the issue and offered no strategic explanation for omitting it.
2. Baskin established prejudice because there was a reasonable probability that the outcome of his appeal would have been different had appellate counsel raised trial counsel's failure to preserve the cross-examination issue.
3. The court declined to find the Confrontation Clause error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the evidence was not so overwhelming that the error could not have affected the verdict.

Questions Presented

1. Whether appellate counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to raise trial counsel's failure to preserve the defendant's right to cross-examine the victim about pending criminal charges.
2. Whether the failure to preserve and raise the Confrontation Clause issue prejudiced Baskin under Strickland.
3. Whether the trial counsel's error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt in light of the evidence.

Disposition

affirmed