Whether a habeas applicant is denied a fair trial in a fair tribunal

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Question One: Whether a habeas applicant is denied a fair trial in a fair tribunal in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment when he files an Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and his trial counsel is now the judge presiding over that trial court and the visiting judge handling the court’s docket for Applicant’s trial counsel refuses to recuse himself and issues the Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law recommending relief be denied finding trial counsel was not ineffective and those findings are used by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in denying relief. Question Two: Whether a person is denied effective assistance of appellate counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution when appellate counsel allows an appeal to be dismissed without asserting that the plea agreement which included his waiver of his right to appeal was not knowingly and voluntarily entered but was the result of ineffective assistance of counsel as asserted and preserved in a timely filed motion for new trial and the appellate attorney confirms that he mistakenly failed to file a response as to why Applicant’s appeal should be continued despite the waiver of appeal, and that his failure to respond was not strategic. Question Three: Whether the ability to challenge the voluntariness of a negotiated plea is included in the substantive right to appeal or is forfeited pursuant to TEX. R. APP. P. 25.2(B) unless the trial court grants a defendant permission to appeal. ll