Montreal Lyons v. State of Tennessee

Petitioner, Montreal Lyons, was convicted by a Shelby County jury of four counts of aggravated robbery and one count of especially aggravated kidnapping. State v. Montreal Lyons, No. W2006-02445-CCA-R3-CD, 2008 WL 2699657, at *3 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, July 9, 2008), , (Tenn. Jan. 20, 2009). Petitioner received an effective sentence of forty-four years. Petitioner was unsuccessful on appeal to this Court. Id. at *7. Subsequently, Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief. Among other issues, Petitioner argued that he was afforded ineffective assistance of counsel because trial counsel failed to properly cross-examine the victims during the trial. The post-conviction court denied the petition. On appeal, Petitioner argues that the post-conviction court erred because he was prejudiced by the trial counsel’s failure to properly cross-examine the victims. After a thorough review of the record, we conclude that Petitioner has not demonstrated that he was prejudiced by the trial counsel’s cross-examination of the victims. Therefore, we affirm the post-conviction court’s denial of the petition.