West v. Waters

Benham, Chief Justice.

On January 3,1990, Tony West was found guilty of two counts of the sale of cocaine and was sentenced to concurrent life sentences. On direct appeal, West’s convictions and sentences were affirmed in an unreported decision. On March 18, 1998, West filed a petition for habeas corpus on three enumerated grounds, but at the evidentiary hearings narrowed his focus to a single contention: that he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his counsel failed to object to the state’s use of a prior conviction in aggravation of punishment without providing timely notice of…