Miguel Tebalan Rivera v. State of Rhode Island

Summary

The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court’s grant of post‑conviction relief to Miguel Tebalan Rivera, holding that trial counsel’s unreasonable mistake of law regarding the effect of waiving testimony constituted deficient performance and that Rivera was prejudiced by that deficiency. The Court applied Strickland’s two‑prong test de novo and found no error in the trial justice’s factual findings.