United States v. Carthorne

The Fourth Circuit vacated the district court's dismissal of a motion for post-conviction relief under 28 U.S.C. 2255. The court held that the standards for plain error and ineffective assistance of counsel were distinct and did not necessarily result in equivalent outcomes for the defendant. In this case, defendant's trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to understand the required legal analysis, and by failing to make an obvious objection to the career offender designation. The court held that these failures by counsel resulted in prejudice to defendant by increasing his sentence by more than seven years' imprisonment. Accordingly, the court remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Carthorne" on Justia Law