Section 31.23 Trial Conduct

• Library: Criminal Practice 2012 Supp

3. (§31.23) Trial Conduct

To prevail on a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel, the movant must overcome the presumption that counsel’s actions are a matter of trial strategy. Barnett v. State, 103 S.W.3d 765, 771 (Mo. banc 2003). Although another attorney may have employed a different strategy or matters may have been handled differently by many, if not most, attorneys, this is not enough to establish ineffectiveness. Id. The heavy presumption of “sound trial strategy” applies to counsel’s conduct at trial, yet the presumption is rebuttable. In Trimble v. State, 693 S.W.2d 267, 273 (Mo. App. W.D. 1985), the defendant in a capital trial received ineffective assistance when his attorney failed to produce testimony regarding an incident during a recess in which the victim’s mother...