Gregg Merrilees v. State of Tennessee - Concurring in part and Dissenting in part

I have the privilege to join the majority’s well-reasoned opinion in large part. For example, I agree that a post-conviction petitioner cannot raise a stand-alone claim seeking dismissal based upon an alleged legal insufficiency of the convicting evidence. I also agree that the Petitioner here has not shown that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel with respect to the victim’s testimony and the in-court identification.2 Finally, I agree that trial counsel rendered deficient performance in failing to raise and argue that the accomplice’s testimony was not sufficiently corroborated. Where I respectfully part ways with the majority concerns its analysis of whether the Petitioner has shown that the reliability of his verdict was undermined by trial counsel’s failure to argue a lack of corroboration.