State v. Lopez

¶1 The trial court found that Oscar Lopez's lawyer was "fairly obvious[ly]" "severely handicapped" by depression during the pretrial and trial phases of Lopez's case. 1 That finding was supported by the trial court's own observations of defense counsel's performance-and sometimes failure to show up-at trial. That finding was also supported by declarations and testimony presented at the hearing on Lopez's motion for a new trial. That evidence revealed that defense counsel could not perform basic tasks, such as showing up to meetings with his investigator to prepare Lopez's defense, submitting…