On the night of February 21, 2006 there was a confrontation between Kristina Grier and some of her friends at her house. He son Nathan was present and saw most of the incident. Kristina showed her guest Gregory Own her guns that she owned. After becoming intoxicated Owen got ahold of her gun and there was a fight between the two of them which resulted in Owen being shot and killed. Grier locked herself inside her house for four hours once the police arrived on scene.
Grier was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 220 months in prison maximum and 24-48 months of community custody. She appealed on the grounds of ineffective counsel due to not requesting lesser offenses. She said that her attorney did not explain the difference between first and second degree murder manslaughter instructions to her. The statue decided that according to the Rules of Professional Conduct that the lawyer cannot be at fault for her “all or nothing” approach to the case. The defendant could not prove that the council did an ineffective job defending her.
The Court of Appeals found Grier’s claim for ineffective assistance to be non-existent and decided to keep the conviction on the grounds precluded by the judge’s prior decision. The decision to request a lesser sentence did not lie in this defendant’s sphere.
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