It’s often said that the ineffective assistance of counsel test is so tough to satisfy that even evidence that a defendant’s attorney slept during trial is insufficient to satisfy the standard. The latest example is Alvarez v. Guerrero, 2025 WL 3719047 (5th Cir. 2025).
In Alvarez, “Juan Carlos Alvarez was sentenced to death for the murders of Michael Aguirre and Jose Varela.” He later appealed, claiming that one of his two trial counsel slept during trial.
A majority … Read the rest