Cooper v. State

Shara N. Cooper has filed a petition which claims that she received ineffective assistance of appellate counsel in her direct appeal in Cooper v. State, 45 So.3d 490 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010). Because petitioner demonstrates that appellate counsel failed to raise an issue which the Florida Supreme Court has held constitutes fundamental error that is per se reversible and not subject to harmless error analysis, we grant the petition.

A jury convicted petitioner of second-degree murder. The court instructed the jury regarding the lesser-included offense of manslaughter by act using the same standard…