Paul Richardson v. State of Tennessee, W2016-02189-CCA-R3-PC

Paul Richardson was convicted by a Shelby County jury for a 2003 home invasion: aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, aggravated assault (later vacated on direct appeal), and felon in possession of a handgun; after remand and resentencing his effective sentence was 41 years.
On remand the trial court relied on Richardson’s extensive prior convictions and prior sentencing materials to impose consecutive sentences.
Richardson filed a post-conviction petition alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel, principally that counsel (1) failed to convey a pretrial 12-year plea offer and (2) failed to object to the State’s untimely filing of its notice of enhancement factors (filed 7 days before trial instead of 10).
At the evidentiary hearing counsel and the prosecutor testified they did not recall conveying a 12-year offer and that Richardson refused plea negotiations and was intent on going to trial; prosecution records contained unsigned draft plea forms.
The post-conviction court found Richardson failed to prove ineffective assistance by clear and convincing evidence and denied relief; the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed.

Issue	Richardson's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Trial counsel failed to convey a 12-year plea offer	Richardson says an offer existed and counsel never told him; he would have accepted it	Counsel and prosecutor testified no offer was conveyed and Richardson refused negotiations; unsigned draft forms are not proof	No ineffective assistance; petitioner failed to prove offer existed or that he would have accepted it
Counsel failed to object to untimely notice of enhancement factors	Richardson says counsel should have moved for continuance and pursued plea if notice was untimely	Trial counsel made a strategic decision not to object; even if notice was late, there was no proven plea offer to accept	No ineffective assistance; strategy reasonable and no prejudice shown

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two-prong ineffective assistance standard)
Lafler v. Cooper, 566 U.S. 156 (2012) (prejudice framework for rejected plea offers)
Nesbit v. State, 452 S.W.3d 779 (Tenn. 2014) (burden when alleging counsel caused rejection of plea offer)
Goad v. State, 938 S.W.2d 363 (Tenn. 1996) (performance prong guidance for counsel review)
Finch v. State, 226 S.W.3d 307 (Tenn. 2007) (standard for reasonably effective assistance)
Tidwell v. State, 922 S.W.2d 497 (Tenn. 1996) (trial court credibility findings on post-conviction review are conclusive)