KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man whose conviction was overturned after he served more than two years in prison is suing the federal public defender’s office for malpractice.
Aaron Winters, 30, said his public defender urged him to take a guilty plea even though he was innocent, The Kansas City Star reported.
Winters was arrested in Kansas City in October 2012 and was charged in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Williams was convicted in an earlier case for possessing marijuana without a tax stamp in Kansas and was sentenced to less than a year in prison. Under federal law, that conviction did not disqualify him from owning a firearm.
He served 28 months of his 30 month sentence before federal prosecutors recommended that he be released and his conviction overturned.
In his lawsuit against the Office of the Public Defender, Western District of Missouri, Winters alleges the public defender failed to perform basic legal research and improperly advised him to enter a guilty plea.
The Star reported the Office of the Public Defender and its attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
