Donald Lee Shields, Jr. v. State of Tennessee

The Petitioner, Donald Lee Shields, Jr., appeals the order denying post-conviction relief from his Warren County convictions for attempted aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and three counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, for which he received an effective sentence of eighteen years.  Two weeks before his original trial, the Petitioner fired his original counsel and retained new trial counsel despite being advised by the trial court that a continuance would not be granted if he did so.  As grounds for post-conviction relief, the Petitioner now contends that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel based upon trial counsel’s failure to adequately prepare for trial given the limited time available for preparation and trial counsel’s failure to present exculpatory witness testimony.  After review, we affirm the judgments of the post-conviction court.