No. 23-5750

Todd Ferry v. Melissa Hainsworth, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Somerset, et al.

Lower Court: Third Circuit
Docketed: 2023-10-11
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: appellate-procedure brady-violation civil-rights default-rule due-process habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel pro-se pro-se-petition state-court
Latest Conference: 2024-01-05
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Did the State and the Federal Habeas courts' decision that ineffective assistance of trial and direct appeal counsel issues were defaulted because of an unartful couching of the claim as a Brady violation, conflict with this Court's precedents and other Circuit Court decisions that hold that pro-se litigants' petitions are to be liberally construed especially when as here, the last state court made a factual interpretation that the claim "was really" a claim against both counsels; and "sounds in ineffective assistance of counsel"?

2. Was trial counsel ineffective for failing to use available interrogation/polygraph transcripts during a suppression hearing that deprived the court of conclusive evidence that self-incriminating statements were involuntary due to law enforcement's overbearing, coercive tactics and lies over the course of nearly eight hours to compel the inculpatory statements?

3. Was direct appeal counsel ineffective for violating a rule of appellate procedure that waived an issue that the trial court comitted reversible error by disallowing trial counsel requested time to review critical suppression information handed over by the Commonwealth on the day of the pretrial hearing?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Did the State and the Federal Habeas courts' decision that ineffective-assistance-of-counsel issues were defaulted conflict with precedents

Docket Entries

2024-01-08
Petition DENIED.
2023-11-30
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/5/2024.
2023-08-08
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due November 13, 2023)

Attorneys

Todd Ferry
Todd Ferry — Petitioner