California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Grant, 248 Cal.Rptr. 444, 45 Cal.3d 829, 755 P.2d 894 (Cal. 1988):
Defendant next urges that he was deprived of effective legal assistance by virtue of his counsel's failure to move for severance of the two murder counts. For defendant to prevail on the point, he must show that reasonably competent counsel would have moved for severance, that such motion would have been successful, and that had the counts been [45 Cal.3d 865] severed an outcome more favorable to him was reasonably probable. (See generally People v. Ledesma (1987) 43 Cal.3d 171, 215-218, 233 Cal.Rptr. 404, 729 P.2d 839.)
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