Commonwealth v. Cousin

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

This is an appeal by allowance from the denial of post-conviction relief from a judgment of sentence for voluntary manslaughter and related offenses. The dispositive question is whether prejudice should be presumed in the evaluation of a defense attorney’s stewardship in undertaking a strategy of conceding his client’s guilt of voluntary manslaughter in order to gain credibility in the eyes of the fact-finder and avoid a conviction of a higher degree of criminal homicide.

The underlying facts are uncontested. On the evening of August 9, 1998, Appellant Khatib Cousin…