Castro

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner Antoine Johnson pleaded no contest to attempted, premeditated, deliberate murder. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Johnson claims that his trial counsel told him that he would serve only seven years of his life sentence and that, based on this information, Johnson accepted the plea agreement. In fact, Johnson was only eligible for parole in seven years. Johnson claims that, had he known he would only become eligible for parole in seven years, he would not have accepted the plea agreement and would not have pleaded no contest.

“A convicted defendant’s claim that counsel’s assistance was so defective as to require reversal of conviction or death sentence has two components. First, the defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient____ Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense.” Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). For guilty-plea cases, the Strickland test “focuses on whether counsel’s constitutionally ineffective performance affected the outcome of the plea process. In other…