AC42890 - Godfrey v. Commissioner of Correction (Common-law contractual ‘‘frustration of purpose’’ doctrine;
Whether a defendant “…who had been charged with a capital felony and pleaded
guilty to murder in order to avoid the imposition of the death penalty is
entitled to withdraw his guilty plea sixteen years later because the death
penalty has since been abolished. We conclude that, even if the frustration of
purpose doctrine applies to criminal plea agreements, the petitioner, Robert C.
Godfrey, is not entitled to relief under that doctrine because by entering into
the plea agreement, he assumed the risk that the death penalty might be
abolished at some point while he was serving his sentence of sixty years of
incarceration.”)
AC42785 - Collins v. Commissioner of Correction (“On appeal, the petitioner claims that the court improperly (1) determined that his conflict of interest claim was procedurally defaulted and that, in any event, his trial counsel did not have a conflict of interest and (2) denied his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. We affirm the judgment of the habeas court.”)