Commonwealth v. Robertson, 431 S.W.3d 430 (Ky. Ct. App. 2013)

The Kentucky Court of Appeals vacated a young person’s conviction in adult court based on ineffective assistance of counsel during the transfer hearing. Noting transfer as a critical stage in the proceeding and defense counsel’s failure to present any lay or expert witnesses and effectively cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses, the court concluded that the transfer hearing produced a “presumptively unreliable” result.   

The court offered the following language in support: “[B]y failing to prepare, by failing to present any lay or expert witnesses or documentary evidence, and by failing to obtain the legal and factual knowledge necessary to effectively cross-examine the Commonwealth’s witnesses, trial counsel ‘entirely fail[ed] to subject the prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing.’ [United States v.] Cronic, 466 U.S. [648,] 659, 104 S.Ct. [2039,] 2047 [(1984)]. As a result, we find that the juvenile transfer hearing produced a ‘presumptively unreliable’ result which cannot survive our review. Id.”