United States v. Abdallah Dais

MEMORANDUM

Abdallah Dais, previously found guilty by a jury in 2002 of felonies involving precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine, appeals the district court’s denial of his motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate his conviction and sentence. He claims his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to show him before trial a silent videotape of his participation in one small episode in the conspiracy charge he faced. He claims he had no knowledge of what was on the videotape because trial counsel failed to tell him what was on it before the trial, and that, had he known of the content of the tape, he would have pleaded guilty, thereby lessening his sentence.

Based on the record, the trial court did not believe this claim, finding it to be “not credible.” The court concluded that, because Dais’s attorney had in fact told him pretrial what was on the videotape and provided him with “all the discovery” the government had turned over—which included transcripts of extensive incriminating intercepted telephone conversations— her failure to show him the silent video before trial did not fall below any objective standard of reasonableness. Moreover,…