Background

• Cammer was convicted by a Chatham County jury in April 2001 of armed robbery, kidnapping with bodily injury, hijacking a motor vehicle, aggravated assault, and a firearm offense during a felony.
• Cammer rejected the State’s pretrial plea offer of twenty years (ten served); co-defendants accepted similar offers.
• Cammer’s father hired trial counsel in early 1999; Cammer lived with father in South Carolina while awaiting trial.
• Cammer testified he was never told he could receive a life sentence and that he did not discuss the plea with counsel without his father present; father testified Cammer never met counsel alone.
• Trial counsel testified he reviewed discovery, discussed evidence and the plea offer with Cammer and his family, and believed he consulted Cammer personally; he stated Cammer’s silence against accepting the offer indicated that Cammer did not want to plead guilty.
• The habeas court applied Strickland and concluded Cammer failed to prove deficient performance; the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed, holding counsel’s consultation was within the broad range of reasonable professional conduct.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510 (Supreme Court, 2003) (ABA standards guide reasonableness; decision to plead lies with defendant)
• Lloyd v. State, 258 Ga. 645 (Ga. 1988) (defendant entitled to be advised of plea considerations)
• Johnson v. State, 289 Ga. 532 (Ga. 2011) (defendant entitled to informed opinion on plea and consequences)
• Hambrick v. Brannen, 289 Ga. 682 (Ga. 2011) (Strickland’s deficient performance inquiry; reasonable conduct standard)
• Stokes v. State, 281 Ga. 825 (Ga. 2007) (reasonableness of trial counsel’s performance without hindsight)
• Wallace v. State, 272 Ga. 501 (Ga. 2000) (reasonable effective assistance judged without hindsight)
• Boria v. Keane, 83 F.3d 48 (2d Cir. 1996) (distinction between persuasion to plead and outright failure to advise)