Oaks v. Pfister

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing defendant’s habeas petition that challenged his murder conviction, after finding that defendant procedurally defaulted his claim that trial court deprived him of his right to choose his trial counsel, where: (1) defendant failed to raise said issue at any stage of his direct appeal; (2) although defendant raised issue in his pro se post-conviction petition, appointed counsel failed to raise issue in amended petition; (3) defendant’s new counsel unsuccessfully attempted to raise issue in supplemental post-conviction petition; and (4) state appellate court found no abuse of discretion in trial court’s denial of request to file supplemental post-conviction petition. Defendant procedurally defaulted claim, since Illinois treats claims that were originally raised in pro se post-conviction petition, but not raised in amended petition as having not been raised before court, and although defendant contended that state courts erroneously denied him leave to raise issue in supplemental post-conviction petition, defendant’s argument could not avoid instant procedural default. Moreover, defendant cannot claim ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel to excuse instant procedural default, since defendant has no constitutional right to post-conviction counsel.