Jonah Iaea v. Franklin Sunn, Director of the Department of Social Services, State of Hawaii

Petition for rehearing is granted. The opinion filed October 28,1985 is withdrawn.

Jonah Iaea filed a federal habeas corpus petition to challenge the validity of his guilty plea in Hawaii state court. He claims that he entered the plea without effective assistance of counsel and that he did not enter it voluntarily or intelligently. The district court denied the petition. Because we find that the performance of Iaea’s counsel was deficient we remand for a determination as to whether Iaea was prejudiced. We also remand for further findings on claimed coercion that might affect the voluntariness of Iaea’s plea.

FACTS

Iaea was charged with six class A drug promotion felonies, four class B drug promotion felonies, one class C firearm possession felony, and one petty misdemeanor marijuana count. Iaea testified that he dismissed his first attorney because the attorney did not wish to try the case. At his request, the court appointed defense counsel, a state public defender, to represent him. Iaea maintained that he was not guilty because he had arranged the drug transactions for a friend rather than on his own initiative. He told defense counsel of two possible witnesses to support…