Gipson

Defendant Lonnie Gipson was found guilty at jury trial of one count of assault with a deadly weapon. In a court trial, two of the alleged “Three Strikes” priors were found true, two prior prison terms were found true, and two of defendant’s three prior serious felony convictions were found true. After a Marsden motion to replace his attorney was denied, and a Romero motion to strike the Three Strikes priors was granted to the extent that one strike was stricken, the court sentenced defendant to 17 years in state prison. On appeal, defendant claims that the Three Strikes provisions under which he was sentenced violate the contract clauses of both the federal and state Constitutions. In a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which we have ordered considered with the appeal, defendant claims both trial and appellate counsel were incompetent for failing to raise the issue of the mental competency and what he asserts was the false testimony at trial of his brother and prosecution witness Wallace Gipson.

FACTS

Since defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, we state the facts briefly. On December 8, 2001, at about 6:51 a.m., defendant’s brother, Wallace…