Antoine Hinton v. State of Tennessee

The Petitioner, Antoine Hinton, appeals from the Shelby County Criminal Court’s denial
of his petition for post-conviction relief from his convictions of first degree felony murder,
especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, employing a firearm during the
commission of a dangerous felony, and reckless aggravated assault. The Petitioner is
serving an effective life sentence. On appeal, the State contends that the post-conviction
court erred when it denied the State’s motion to dismiss the petition. The Petitioner
contends that the post-conviction court erred when it denied relief for the Petitioner’s
ineffective assistance of counsel claim against: (1) pretrial counsel for advising the
Petitioner to give a statement to law enforcement when counsel had a conflict of interests;
(2) trial counsel for failing to raise marital privilege, and (3) trial and appellate counsel for
failing to secure at trial a jury instruction pursuant to State v. White or to raise on appeal
the lack of the instruction. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.