Phillips v. Williams

SEARS, Presiding Justice.

The appellant, Harvey Phillips, was convicted of the possession of cocaine, and the Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction. Phillips subsequently filed a petition for habeas corpus relief, contending, among other things, that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to contend on appeal that the State failed to establish the chain of custody of the substance identified at trial as cocaine. The habeas court denied the petition, and we granted Phillips’s application for certificate of probable cause to appeal. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.

When a…