People v. Harris

Opinion

WOODS (Fred), J.

Appellant/petitioner (hereafter petitioner) makes this novel claim: he was denied effective assistance of appellate counsel in his first appeal (B044048) because appellate counsel pursued rather than abandoned that appeal.

We find petitioner has failed to prove his claim and accordingly deny the petition and affirm the judgment.

Procedural and Factual Background

Because the only issue is effective assistance of counsel in the first appeal, the facts may be stated simply. We adopt Justice Ashby’s summary: “About seven months before the murder, the victim, Kenneth Fulcher,…