Joseph Code v. Charles M. Montgomery

CORRECTED OPINION

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:

Joseph Code appeals the district court’s denial of habeas corpus relief. Because we conclude that Code received ineffective assistance of counsel as defined in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1976, Code was convicted in state court of an armed robbery that had occurred two and a half years earlier at a residence near Bainbridge, Georgia. 1 While incarcerated in Macon on an unrelated charge, Code received three weeks’ notice of his impending trial in Bainbridge for the…