People v. Ford-Howard CA1/2

INTRODUCTION

After a brief jury trial, Deshawn Giovanni Ford-Howard was found guilty of first degree residential burglary; he was sentenced to four years in state prison. He has filed an appeal and a petition for writ of habeas corpus, claiming that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance, among other claims. We previously issued an order to show cause, and have ordered the petition consolidated with the appeal. Prior to trial, Ford-Howard, hereafter petitioner, received a plea offer from the prosecutor. He tried to accept the offer at the trial call, but learned that the offer had expired several days earlier. Petitioner maintains that his trial counsel’s error in failing to discover the plea offer’s expiration date caused him to proceed to trial rather than to accept the favorable offer. We need not address petitioner’s other claims because

1 counsel’s ineffectiveness in representing him in pretrial proceedings amounts to the ineffective assistance of counsel prohibited by the Sixth Amendment. Accordingly, we will vacate the judgment of conviction. In the absence of any statement by the Attorney General regarding appropriate relief, we will order that petitioner be…