Reese v. State
Annotate this CaseAppellant Ricky Reese was convicted of capital murder and of being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to an aggregate term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Appellant subsequently filed in the trial court a petition seeking postconviction relief on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. After a hearing, the circuit court denied the petition. On appeal, Appellant contended that the trial court erred in denying his petition because of his counsel's failure to raise at trial and on direct appeal the material-witness rule in Smith v. State, which states that the requirement of producing all material witnesses is a necessary component of the State's burden of proof to show that a confession is voluntary. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Appellant failed to show that an objection to the prosecution's failure to produce witnesses based on the material-witness rule would have been successful because the rule was inapplicable in this case, and therefore, counsel was not ineffective for failing to make the objection on that basis.
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