Ineffective Assistance of Counsel in Sentencing Case

Jacob Blizzard and Morgan Walker were hired to challenge Client’s sentence.

Client was an 18-year-old African refugee at the time of his sentencing.

Client had pled guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and allowed the Court to set the punishment. The Court had initially set his sentence at 13 years in prison.
Some years later, through the post-conviction 11.07 writ of habeas corpus process, Jacob and Morgan were able to show that Client had received ineffective assistance of counsel in his sentencing.

Client had suffered through a genocide event in Africa as a small child. Then after immigrating to the United States, Client had a falling out with his family due to his untreated trauma, losing his support system. Then at 16 years old, just a year prior to the offense, Client witnessed his best friend’s murder.

His trial counsel had failed to present any of this evidence to the Court in his original sentencing hearing.

In ruling on our 11.07 writ of habeas corpus, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his sentence due to the ineffective assistance of counsel and remanded the case for a new sentencing hearing.

Jacob and Morgan took the case back before the trial court for resentencing and presenting the mitigation evidence that his previous counsel had failed to introduce.

Ultimately, the trial court reduced the sentence to 9 years.

At the time of re-sentencing, the client had already served 4 years in prison, making the client eligible for parole on the new sentence in 6 months instead of 2.5 years.

Attorneys Jacob Blizzard and Morgan Walker work tirelessly to achieve the greatest possible results for each of our clients and their families. This is one of their successful results, settlements, and verdicts. Every case and client is unique and depends upon the individual facts and circumstances of each case. Clients may or may not obtain the same or similar results in each case.