Culpepper v. State

MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Sherrill Culpepper argues the trial judge wrongly denied her post-conviction challenge to her guilty plea for abusing a vulnerable adult. She suggests that based on her lawyer’s alleged failure to relay to her an earlier more favorable plea offer, the judge should have found her attorney’s representation was constitutionally ineffective. Culpepper is correct that as a general rule, criminal defense attorneys must communicate formal plea offers from the State to their clients when the offers’ terms and conditions may be favorable to the accused.1 But the failure…