Resnick v. United States, No. 20-1221 (7th Cir. 2021)
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In 2016, the Seventh Circuit affirmed Resnick’s conviction and life sentence for sexually abusing two young boys, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Resnick had entered a plea of guilty to charges brought in Florida with respect to one boy. Plea negotiations broke down with respect to charges brought in Indiana with respect to the other boy.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the denial of Resnick’s motion under 28 U.S.C. 2255 to vacate his conviction and sentence, rejecting an argument that his defense counsel provided ineffective assistance during the plea process, throughout the pretrial and trial proceedings, and at sentencing. Resnick’s rejection of the amended offer means that he, not trial counsel, is responsible for the sentence he ultimately received. The court rejected challenges to counsel’s handling of evidence. Dueling experts on the correlation between child pornography possession and contact offenses was highly unlikely to sway the verdict, given that there was substantial evidence that directly showed Resnick sexually abused the boys. Any expert testimony on Resnick’s behalf would have been considerably undermined by his plea agreement from the Florida proceedings, in which he admitted he deleted child pornography from the computer. The law surrounding the admission of his refusal to take a polygraph was far from clearly established at the time of his trial.
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