People v. Hafezi CA2/1

DISCUSSION

Although in the trial court Hafezi raised numerous grounds for withdrawal of his plea, his appeal relies on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel based on his trial counsel’s (1) erroneous advice that the trial court’s indicated sentence would expire by the following Monday morning if he did not enter the plea on Friday afternoon after a long day in court; and (2) failure to advise Hafezi that if he went to trial a reasonable probability existed that he would obtain a more favorable result. These grounds do not establish ineffective assistance of counsel. As a result, Hafezi has not demonstrated a basis on appeal for withdrawal of his plea. “‘“[T]he right to counsel is the right to the effective assistance of counsel.”’ [Citation.] ‘The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether

1 Statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 counsel’s conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result.’ [Citation.] ‘A convicted defendant’s claim that counsel’s assistance was so defective as to require reversal of a conviction . . . has two components. First, the…