Telling a jury your client committed a robbery does not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a case of a former professional basketball player-turned-armed robbery convict.
Clifford Darden, 53, is serving a 34-year sentence for two armed robberies committed in the summer of 2007 in the Tampa, Fla., area. Darden wants his conviction reversed because he claims his lawyer didn’t consult him before conceding during the trial that Darden was guilty of one of the two robberies for which he was charged.
