No. 21-5697

Shawn Mayreis v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Justice, Correctional Institutions Division

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2021-09-17
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: constitutional-rights courtroom-closure due-process fundamental-unfairness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel public-trial right-to-counsel strickland voir-dire
Key Terms:
FirstAmendment
Latest Conference: 2021-11-12
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether prejudice can be presumed when counsel's defective advice results in an unlawful and total closure of the courtroom to a defendant's family members prior to jury selection

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTION(S) PRESENTED : I. This Court has established that a defendant's right to a public trial extends to voir dire. When counsel's defective advice given in advance of trial results in an unlawful and total closure of the courtroom to a defendant's family members prior to. the jury selection, can prejudice be presumed? II. In the context of a public trial violation where defense counsel does not know the law and is the sole party responsible for barring family members from the courtroom before the jury selection, should that attorney be allowed to circumvent the Constitution by seeking shelter under Strickland knowing that the burden will be placed squarely on the defendant to demonstrate either prejudice or fundamental unfairness when he later raises the error via an ineffectiveness claim? Til. If the public trial error complained of could not have > possibly been objected to at trial, nor raised on direct review, nor remedied by the.:trial court because defense counsel was solely responsible for the court closure in the first place; and it was later determined and admitted to by counsel that he mistakenly caused that closure as a result of not knowing the law; is the defendant essentially being denied the right to effective assistance of counsel when counsel breaches the duty of loyalty, perhaps the most basic of his duties?

Docket Entries

2021-11-15
Petition DENIED.
2021-10-28
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/12/2021.
2021-09-02
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due October 18, 2021)

Attorneys

Shawn Mayreis
Shawn Mayreis — Petitioner