State v. Tate, 2012 Ohio 4276

Defendant Timothy Tate was convicted of domestic violence in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court; trial included stipulation to two prior domestic violence convictions; Tate appeals alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and other trial errors.
The July 18, 2011 incident in Cleveland involved Tate striking Yesolde Collins during a meeting with Collins and Charlotte Thomas, who called 911; police arrested Tate.
Trial proceeded with Tate’s counsel stipulating to the authenticity of the two prior DV convictions; Tate was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison.
The appellate court overruled Tate’s ineffective assistance claim but found plain error concerning the element of prior convictions required for a felony DV conviction, vacated the felony conviction, and remanded for entry of a misdemeanor DV conviction and resentencing.
The dissent would affirm the felony conviction, arguing the state did prove the prior convictions given stipulation to authenticity as to identity.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Ineffective assistance of counsel standard	Tate’s counsel performed deficiently on multiple trial tactics	Counsel’s actions were strategic and within reasonable professional standards	No ineffective assistance; claims fail on prejudice and strategic basis
Plain error in proof of prior convictions for felony DV	State failed to prove identity of prior conviction beyond reasonable doubt	Stipulation to authenticity implies identity fixed by defendant	Plain error established; reverse and remand for misdemeanor DV conviction
Voir dire strategy regarding biased jurors	Counsel should have retained biased jurors to help state	Removal of biased jurors was strategic and appropriate	No error; voir dire was a strategic matter and within trial court discretion
Hearsay evidence—911 tape and written statement	Evidence should be excluded as hearsay	Evidence admissible under present sense impression and excited utterance exceptions	Not erroneous; counsel’s failure to object not prejudicial mishandling of evidence
Impeachment of Collins and potential impact on defense	Counsel should have impeached Collins for credibility	Strategic choice not to impeach; no prejudice shown	No ineffective assistance; strategic trial decision

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (establishes test for ineffective assistance of counsel: deficient performance and prejudice)
State v. Bradley, 538 N.E.2d 373 (Ohio 1989) (Ohio 1989) (presumes tactical decisions; opening statements and other strategies analyzed with deference)
State v. Mason, 694 N.E.2d 932 (Ohio 1998) (Ohio 1998) (voir dire and trial strategy protected; deference to counsel's tactics)
State v. Abdul, 2009-Ohio-225 (Ohio 2009) (voir dire and trial tactics; wide range of reasonable assistance)
State v. Clayton, 402 N.E.2d 1189 (Ohio 1980) (Ohio 1980) (debatable trial tactics not reversible error)
State v. Macalla, 2008-Ohio-569 (Ohio 2008) (identity proof for prior convictions requires more than name match; uniqueness identifiers needed)
State v. Young, 2002-Ohio-2744 (Ohio 2002) (plain error standard in the appellate review of trial court convictions)