Kalief Cummings v. Kentucky

I. Whether the Kentucky Supreme Court violated the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Sections Seven and Eleven of the Kentucky Constitution by denying fundamental procedural due process rights when trial counsel was permitted to withdraw without the appointment of substitute counsel, forcing Petitioner to proceed pro se in a complex criminal proceeding despite lacking legal training or experience. II. Whether the Kentucky Supreme Court’s affirmance of Petitioner’s conviction violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Section Eleven of the Kentucky Constitution when trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to object to the placement of an improper juror on the trial panel who should have been struck for cause, thereby denying Petitioner’s right to an impartial jury and effective assistance of counsel. III. Whether the cumulative effect of the procedural due process violations and ineffective assistance of counsel errors resulted in a fundamentally unfair trial that violated Petitioner’s constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Sections Seven and Eleven of the Kentucky Constitution.