Jimmy Ray Bonds, Appellant-Petitioner v. Louie L. Wainwright, Secretary, Department of Offender Rehabilitation, Appellee-Respondent

Despite the study and effort the members of the court have lavished on this case, I must respectfully dissent because the material with which we have worked was not in shape for our labors. The findings of the trial court are ambiguous. Both the majority and other dissenters must parse sentences and plumb words to draw meanings, and the exercise in hermeneutics then leads them to different factual conclusions. I cannot agree with either exegesis for I cannot tell whether the trial court found: (a) the lawyers, who appear to have done all that counsel could up to the time the decision to…