Aaron Joseph Morrow v. State of Minnesota, 886 N.W.2d 204

Background

In 2010 Aaron Joseph Morrow fired an AK-47, killing one person and injuring another; a jury convicted him on nine counts and the district court entered convictions for first-degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted first-degree premeditated murder.
On direct appeal Morrow (through counsel and a pro se supplemental brief) challenged various trial rulings and sufficiency of the evidence; this court affirmed, concluding the State presented ample evidence of premeditation.
In 2015 Morrow filed a postconviction petition alleging appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise five issues: (1) sufficiency of the evidence; (2) prosecutorial misconduct; (3) ineffective assistance of trial counsel (failure to request a manslaughter instruction); (4) instructional error on the drive-by-shooting counts; and (5) multiple-overlapping-convictions under Minn. Stat. § 609.04.
The postconviction court denied the petition without an evidentiary hearing, finding the theories lacked merit; Morrow appealed that denial.
This Court reviewed whether the postconviction court abused its discretion in denying an evidentiary hearing and whether the record conclusively showed Morrow was not entitled to relief.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Morrow)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not raising sufficiency of the evidence	Morrow argued counsel should have challenged sufficiency on appeal	The issue was raised in Morrow's pro se supplemental brief and rejected on direct appeal	No prejudice; pro se brief addressed claim and court found it meritless
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not raising prosecutorial misconduct	Morrow claimed misconduct should have been raised by counsel	Same as above; misconduct was presented pro se and rejected	No prejudice; claim lacked merit on appeal
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not challenging failure to request a manslaughter instruction at trial	Morrow argued trial counsel’s omission merited appellate review	Court explained even if error, jury’s conviction of first-degree murder forecloses heat-of-passion manslaughter relief	No reasonable probability of different outcome; claim not prejudicial
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not challenging drive-by-shooting instructions	Morrow argued instructional error on drive-by counts	State noted district court did not convict on drive-by counts, so error would be moot	No prejudice; convictions did not include drive-by counts
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not arguing violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.04 (multiple convictions)	Morrow argued he should have been convicted of lower degree (second-degree) under § 609.04	State and court: § 609.04 bars convicting both degrees simultaneously; here only the greater offense was entered	Claim lacks legal merit; no reasonable probability of different outcome

Key Cases Cited

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (standard for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Riley v. State, 819 N.W.2d 162 (abuse of discretion review for denial of postconviction evidentiary hearing)
Williams v. State, 869 N.W.2d 316 (standard of review for postconviction factual and legal conclusions)
Carridine v. State, 867 N.W.2d 488 (applicability of Strickland to appellate-counsel claims)
Zornes v. State, 880 N.W.2d 363 (appellate counsel need not raise all issues)
Arredondo v. State, 754 N.W.2d 566 (appellate counsel’s discretion in issue selection)
Ives v. State, 655 N.W.2d 633 (prejudice standard for appellate counsel claims)
Patterson v. State, 670 N.W.2d 439 (definition of reasonable probability of different outcome)
Sessions v. State, 666 N.W.2d 718 (pro se supplemental brief can cure appellate counsel’s omission)
State v. Morrow, 834 N.W.2d 715 (this Court’s prior decision rejecting sufficiency and related claims)
State v. Chavez-Nelson, 882 N.W.2d 579 (heat-of-passion manslaughter instruction prejudice analysis)
Cooper v. State, 745 N.W.2d 188 (verdicts indicating jury rejection of manslaughter theory)
State v. Jackson, 773 N.W.2d 111 (no need to address alternative felony claims when not convicted of those offenses)