Steele v. U.S., 8th Cir. Mar. 13, 2008
07-1112 Steele v. U.S.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines
[PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author, with Loken, Chief Judge, and Hansen, Circuit Judge]
Prisoner case - habeas. Due process does not guarantee a constitutional
right to counsel for a litigant seeking to file a certiorari petition to the
Supreme Court of the United States, and counsel’s failure to file a
petition following Steele’s direct appeal did not constitute ineffective
assistance of counsel; alleged violations of the court’s Amended Criminal
Justice Act Plan and Rule 44(a) did not deprive Steele of due process of
law and did not give rise to a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel;
even if a right to have counsel file a certiorari petition existed, Steele
failed to show that she suffered prejudice from her counsel’s failure to
file a petition.
