State v. Vickers

By his first assignment of error, defendant contends that he was denied effective assistance of counsel by the failure of his appointed attorney to investigate and raise an insanity defense. We find no merit in this assignment.

The right to counsel is guaranteed by the sixth amendment to the United States Constitution and made applicable to the states by the fourteenth amendment, and by Article I, Sections 19 and 23 of the North Carolina Constitution. This constitutional right to counsel has long been recognized as an entitlement to the effective assistance of counsel. McMann v. Richardson,…