Hutchinson v. State

BOLIN, Justice.

On August 26, 1999, Joseph W. Hutchinson III, an attorney, was appointed to represent Medell Banks, Jr., an indigent defendant, in a capital-murder case. On May 7, 2001, Banks entered a “best-interest” plea of guilty to manslaughter for the death of his wife’s newborn baby. On June 25, 2001, the trial court sentenced Banks to 15 years’ imprisonment. Banks later moved to withdraw his guilty plea based on newly discovered evidence indicating that his wife could not have been pregnant and bore the child Banks was accused of killing. The trial court denied Banks’s motion to…