Maia v. Commissioner of Correction

DEREK MAIA v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION (SC 20786) Robinson, C. J., and McDonald, D’Auria, Mullins, Ecker and Alexander, Js. Syllabus The petitioner, who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to sixty years of incarceration, the maximum sentence for that crime, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming, inter alia, that his trial counsel, M, had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to advise the petitioner to accept the trial court’s plea offer of forty-five years of incarceration in exchange for his guilty plea. At the petitioner’s habeas trial, M testified that he…