People v. Johnson

This case presents question as to whether trial court properly denied defendant’s pro se motion to reconsider denial of his post-conviction petition that had been filed on defendant’s behalf by privately retained counsel, where defendant attempted to raise new claims in his motion to reconsider. Appellate Court found that: (1) defendant was prohibited from raising new issues in motion to reconsider denial of his post-conviction petition and must instead file motion seeking leave to file successive post-conviction petition; and (2) defendant could not assert ineffective assistance of counsel claim at first stage of post-conviction process, even though defendant argued that original petition was frivolous. In his petition for leave to appeal, defendant argued that where, as here, there was disagreement between him and his retained counsel as to whether additional issues should be included in original post-conviction petition, counsel should have either included his proposed issues in original post-conviction petition or told him that he would be better off filing pro se petition if he wanted said issues to be considered by court.