Heard v. Addison, No. 12-5060 (10th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant David Glen Heard pled guilty to two counts under Oklahoma’s lewd molestation statute. In pleading guilty, defendant admitted that he positioned himself in a Tulsa Wal-Mart store so as to be able to "look under [children's] clothes at [their] bod[ies] and at [their] undergarments." Pursuant to the plea agreement, the prosecutor recommended that defendant receive concurrent twenty-five- year prison terms. Soon after he was sentenced, defendant discovered an unpublished case out of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA), which cast doubt upon whether defendant's conduct fell within the ambit of the statute. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit agreed with defendant that his attorney provided ineffective assistance in failing to advise him of viable defenses to the charges against him, and the record was clear that, but for counsel’s deficient performance, defendant would not have pled guilty to these offenses. The Court reversed the district court’s denial of defendant's habeas petition and remanded the case for further proceedings.
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