Did Slone sufficiently meet his burden under Strickland

QUESTION PRESENTED The petitioner, Eugene Slone, is a federal inmate who pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1513(a)(1)(B) for his purported role in a murder-for-hire plot in the Eastern District of Kentucky. The Government alleged that Slone paid to have two people killed because he believed they were supplying federal law enforcement with information regarding Slone’s oxycodone distribution ring. However, it came to light before trial that neither victim was a federal informant. This raised the question as to whether Slone’s belief that the victims were federal informants was enough to charge him under 18 U.S.C. § 1513 or whether the Government lacked subject matter jurisdiction. Slone’s trial counsel decided not to press the issue and instead advised him to accept the Government’s offer of a binding plea agreement. Subsequently, Slone executed the plea deal and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, per the plea deal. In 2016, Slone filed a motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, claiming that his trial counsel acted ineffectively by failing to challenge the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction and that he entered the plea agreement unknowingly and involuntarily. Following an evidentiary hearing where Slone and his trial attorneys testified, the District Court denied his § 2255 motion and declined to issue a Certificate of Appealability. Slone appealed to the Sixth Circuit, which also declined to issue a Certificate of Appealability. When raising an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, a defendant must prove both (1) deficient performance and (2) prejudice. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686 (1984). The question herein presented is: Did Slone sufficiently meet his burden under Strickland such that i the District and Circuit courts should have granted his petition for a Certificate of Appealability, and does the Certificate scheme, as currently constructed, pass constitutional muster? ii STATEMENT OF