TN: Not filing motion to suppress was best strategy to disassociate from house searched by not having to show standing

Defense counsel’s refusal to file a motion to suppress the search of the place defendant was found in was reasonable strategy to separate defendant from the drugs found in the house. To seek to suppress the search, defendant would have to establish a connection to the property he was trying at trial to disassociate himself from. Stanford v. State, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 516 (July 19, 2016):

Given counsel’s chosen trial strategy of establishing that the Defendant was not staying at the house and was unaware of the illegal activity in the house, a motion to suppress was not appropriate. A motion to suppress relative to the search would necessarily have involved establishing the Petitioner’s standing to challenge the search, that is, that he lived in the house or was staying in the house and had an expectation of privacy. If counsel established at a suppression hearing that the Petitioner lived or was staying in the house, he could not then ethically present evidence at the trial that the Petitioner did not live in or stay at the house. See Tenn. R. Sup. Ct. 8, 3.3(b) (an attorney shall not “offer evidence the lawyer knows to be false.”). We note the Petitioner’s testimony that he “made clear” to counsel he did not live at the house. Counsel’s decision was tactical and supported by adequate preparation and by the information provided to counsel by the Petitioner and the Petitioner’s mother. Counsel’s performance was not deficient in this regard.

Relative to prejudice, the Petitioner’s position throughout the proceedings was that he did not live at the house and, therefore, the Petitioner’s lack of standing would have precluded a successful motion to suppress. The Petitioner was not prejudiced by counsel’s decision not to file a motion to suppress. The record does not preponderate against the post-conviction court’s determination that counsel did not provide ineffective assistance. The Petitioner is not entitled to relief on this basis.