2013-M-227             Jermaine Ferguson, petitioner, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

Following a jury trial, the district court convicted appellant Jermaine Ferguson of first-degree premeditated murder and attempted first-degree premeditated murder for his role in a shooting that caused the death of one person and injured two others. 

In a consolidated appeal, we affirmed Ferguson’s convictions and the post-conviction court’s summary denial of Ferguson’s first petition for post-conviction relief.

On a third appeal, Ferguson challenges the court’s conclusion that an affidavit from a recanting witness is inadmissible hearsay.  Ferguson also claims that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel during the post-conviction proceedings.  Because we conclude that the post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the affidavit and that Ferguson does not have a constitutional right to effective assistance of post-conviction counsel, we affirm.

1. The affidavit in support of the appellant’s witness-recantation claim does not have sufficient corroboration to satisfy the statement-against-interest exception to the hearsay rule.  

2. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the appellant’s witness-recantation claim because the appellant failed to present any admissible recantation evidence at the evidentiary hearing. 

3. The appellant’s claim of ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel fails because the appellant does not have a constitutional right to effective assistance of post-conviction counsel when he previously had a counseled direct appeal.  

 Affirmed.

Stras (Gildea, Page, Paul Anderson, Barry Anderson, Dietzen, and Wright)

[MURDER]

A12-310,