Dennis Pylant v. State of Tennessee - Dissenting

The circumstances of the present case are unusual and demand an unusually circumspect analysis of the axioms of post-conviction review. The petitioner, who is serving a life sentence for first degree murder, declined a plea offer of three years as a Range I offender for reckless homicide based upon counsel’s advice to go to trial and pursue an “all or nothing” strategy.  Although I do not quarrel per se with counsel’s recommendation in this respect, I do point to counsel’s failure to exploit at trial the indications of Ms. Davis’s sole responsibility for the victim’s death, and I view the failure as deficient performance of counsel that prejudiced the petitioner.  Therefore, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the petitioner failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel.