Ex Parte Jenkins

Cleveland Jenkins, on the advice of his attorney, pleaded guilty to second degree robbery, a class B felony, and was sentenced in the Escambia County Circuit Court to life in the penitentiary under Alabama's Habitual Felony Offender Act, Ala. Code 1975, § 13A-5-9. Jenkins did not appeal from that conviction and sentence. Jenkins later filed a timely post-conviction petition for relief from judgment under Rule 20, Temp.A.R.Crim.P.,1 asserting, among other things, that he had not been effectively represented by his attorney and that, as a result, he had received an excessive sentence. The trial…