Davis v. State, 301 Ga. 658

Brandon Davis was indicted for malice murder and felony murder in the April 1, 2013 stabbing death of Chassity Lester; pursuant to a plea agreement the State nolle prossed the malice murder count and Davis pled guilty to felony murder and received life.
Two weeks after sentencing, while still in the same term of court, Davis — represented by his guilty-plea counsel — moved to withdraw his guilty plea alleging "manifest injustice."
At the withdrawal hearing Davis personally alleged his guilty-plea counsel had been ineffective; counsel remained the same lawyer who had represented him at the plea.
The trial court did not appoint new counsel or take evidence on the ineffectiveness claim, made a verbal finding that there was no evidence supporting ineffective assistance, and later entered a summary order denying the motion.
Davis obtained new counsel on appeal and reasserted the ineffective-assistance claim; the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed and remanded for a hearing with new counsel to present the claim.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Davis could properly raise an ineffective-assistance claim at the hearing when represented by the same counsel who provided the plea	Davis argued counsel was ineffective at the guilty plea and sought to withdraw plea on that basis	State (and trial court practice) treated the motion on the merits without appointing new counsel and found no evidence of ineffectiveness	Court held a defendant cannot fairly raise ineffective-assistance claims through the same counsel; the earliest practicable moment is with new counsel on appeal, so remand for a hearing was required
Whether the trial court erred by addressing the ineffectiveness claim without appointing new counsel	Davis argued the court should have appointed new counsel before considering the claim	Trial court addressed the claim while Davis was still represented by the same attorney and denied the motion	Court held it was reversible error to decide the claim without appointing new counsel and without taking evidence; remand for an evidentiary hearing was required

Hampton v. State, 272 Ga. 284 (2000) (attorney cannot be expected to argue his own ineffectiveness)
White v. Kelso, 261 Ga. 32 (1991) (same rule that trial counsel cannot present claim of his own ineffectiveness)
Williams v. State, 280 Ga. 539 (2006) (remand for hearing appropriate when ineffectiveness claim first properly raised on appeal)
Kennebrew v. State, 267 Ga. 400 (1996) (trial court erred by addressing ineffectiveness without appointing new counsel)
Johnson v. State, 266 Ga. 775 (1996) (error to address pro se ineffective-assistance claims while defendant still represented by trial counsel)
Brown v. State, 295 Ga. App. 107 (2008) (trial court erred by failing to inform defendant of right to new counsel and holding hearing while represented by same counsel)