State v. Saylor, 294 Neb. 492

Background

In 1984 James M. Saylor was charged with first‑degree murder for the death of his grandmother, Lena Saylor; he was later charged with second‑degree murder as part of a negotiated stipulated bench trial.
Saylor waived a jury and the parties submitted a 20‑page stipulated set of facts (including taped statements and medical evidence) so Saylor could preserve his suppression ruling for appeal while avoiding exposure to the death penalty.
The district court denied Saylor’s motion to suppress the recorded conversation; after the stipulated bench trial the court convicted Saylor of second‑degree murder and sentenced him to life. This court affirmed on direct appeal.
In 2012 Saylor filed for postconviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and judicial misconduct; the district court limited the evidentiary hearing to those claims.
At the postconviction hearing Saylor presented new medical expert opinions suggesting natural causes of death and challenged aspects of the 1985 stipulation and chain of custody; the district court excluded proposed expert attorney testimony about counsel performance.
The district court denied postconviction relief, finding no deficient performance or prosecutorial/judicial misconduct and no prejudice; the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed.

Issues

Issue	Saylor's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Ineffective assistance of trial counsel (stipulated bench trial)	Counsel coerced/failed him by agreeing to stipulation, not preserving exculpatory medical evidence, not litigating jury waiver or speedy‑trial rights	Counsel pursued a reasonable strategy: reduced charge, avoided death penalty, preserved suppression issue for appeal; stipulation was voluntary	No deficient performance; strategy reasonable; no prejudice shown
Prejudice from counsel’s conduct	But for counsel’s errors, the result would differ; expert evidence shows natural death theory that would have changed outcome	Even accepting new evidence, recorded admissions, potential testimony from Sapp, and other facts make different outcome speculative	No reasonable probability of a different outcome; prejudice not established
Prosecutorial misconduct (false/misleading stipulation; ex parte contacts; discovery failures)	Prosecutor misrepresented pathologist Kutsch’s opinion, hid chain‑of‑custody issues, maintained improper contacts after recusal	Stipulation reflected available 1985 facts; prosecutor acted in good faith; contacts were ordinary consultation; discovery was provided	No prosecutorial misconduct proved; credibility/resolution of factual disputes for trial court
Character of stipulated bench trial (tantamount to guilty plea; confrontation)	Stipulation effectively pleaded guilt and court failed to advise on confrontation rights	Stipulation admitted evidence but did not amount to plea to guilt or sufficiency; defendant preserved suppression claim and could have withdrawn waiver	Not tantamount to guilty plea; no required additional colloquy; court’s findings correct
Exclusion of expert attorney testimony and motion to reopen	Requested attorney‑expert should have been allowed; new medical evidence warranted reopening	Proposed testimony would not assist trier of fact; new evidence merely repeats arguments and does not change prejudice analysis	Exclusion proper; motion to reopen properly denied
Speedy‑trial claim	Counsel ineffective for not raising statutory speedy‑trial discharge	Record on appeal incomplete (bill of exceptions lacked full clerk’s transcript); issue not properly preserved in record	Court declined to consider due to incomplete record

Key Cases Cited

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two‑part test for ineffective assistance: deficient performance and prejudice)
Cronic v. United States, 466 U.S. 648 (1984) (presumed prejudice where counsel wholly fails to subject prosecution to meaningful adversarial testing)
State v. Saylor, 223 Neb. 694 (1986) (direct appeal affirming conviction)
State v. Howard, 282 Neb. 352 (2011) (stipulation to admission of evidence is not necessarily tantamount to a guilty plea)
State v. Poe, 292 Neb. 60 (2015) (appellate standard: trial judge resolves factual conflicts in postconviction evidentiary hearings)
State v. Branch, 290 Neb. 523 (2015) (appellate review of Strickland legal determinations independent)
State v. Lee, 290 Neb. 601 (2015) (credibility and weight of evidence are for the factfinder)